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THE GREAT CRUSADE 
ET. HON. DAVm LLOYD GEORGE 



THE 

GREAT CRUSADE 

Extracts from Speeches Delivered During the War 
BY THE RT. HON. 

DAVID LLOYD GEORGE, M.P. 

ABBANGEDBT 

F. L. STEVENSON, C.B.K, B.A. (Lond.) 




NEW ^%SW YORK 
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 



^^5'' 



Copyright, 1918, 
By George H. Dor an Company 



JUL 22 1918 

Printed in the United States of America 

©G1.A501236 



PREFACE 

These speeches are not republished on my own 
initiative, but in response to many requests. If, 
however, my speeches in book form can help to 
bring home to their readers the gravity of the 
crisis in which the democracies of the world are 
placed, I am glad that they should be republished 
even though I have not had time to re-read or 
revise them in any way. I have never believed 
that the war would be a short war, or that in some 
mysterious way, by negotiation or compromise, 
we could free Europe from the malignant military 
autocracy which is endeavouring to trample it 
into submission and moral death. I have always 
believed that the machine which has established 
its despotic control over the minds and bodies of 
its own victims, and then organised and driven 
them to slaughter in order to extend that control 
over the rest of the world, would only be de- 
stroyed if the free peoples proved themselves 
strong and steadfast enough to defeat its attempt 
in arms. The events of the last few weeks must 
have made it plain to every thinking man that 
there is no longer room for compromise between 
the ideals for which we and our enemies stand. 
Democracy and autocracy have come to death 



vi PREFACE 

gripa. One or the other will fasten its hold on 
mankind. It is a clear realisation of this issue 
which will be our strength in the trials still to 
come. 

I have no doubt that freedom will triumph. But 
whether it will triumph soon or late, after a final 
supreme effort in the next few months or a long 
[drawn agony, depends on the vigour and self-sac- 
rifice with which the children of liberty, and espe- 
cially those behind the lines, dedicate themselves 
to the struggle. There is no time for ease or 
delay or debate. The call is imperative. The 
choice is clear. It is for each citizen to do his 
part. 

D. Lloyd Geoege. 



CONTENTS 



Minister of Munitions, 

Munitions: Progress of 
British Production 

A Word to the Munition 
Workers 

Winning this War 

Secretary of State for War. 
Why should we not Sing? 

Verdun 

The Great Men of Wales .... 

Prime Minister, 
The New Government 

A Safe Investment 

Sacrifice at Home 

Sowing the Winter Wheat 

Entry of America into the 
War 

The War and the Empire 

Restatement of the Causes 
and Aims of the War 

• • 

Til 



DELIVERED AT PAGE 

House of Commons, 
Dec. 20th, 1915. 11 

Ponder's End, 

Feh. Srd, 1916. 19 

Conway, 

May m, 1916. 21 

Aberystwyth, 

Aug. nth, 1916. 41 

Verdun, Seyt., 1916. 47 

Cardiff, Oct. 21th, 

1916. 49 

House of Commons, 
Dec. l^th, 1916. 63 

Guildhall, Jan. 11th, 

1917. 88 

House of Commons, 
Feb, 23rd, 1917. 98 

Carnarvon, Feb. 3rd, 
1917. 100 

Savoy Hotel, 

April 12^/1, 1917. 119 

Guildhall, Apn7 27/^, 
1917. 131 

Glasgow, June 2Qth, 
1917. 140 



ii CONT] 
"Victory wiU Come *' .... 


5NTS 

DELIVERED AT 

Dundee, June SOth, 
1917. 


PAQB 

164 


Belgium 


Queen^s Hall, 
July 21st, 1917. 


166 


Serbia 


Savoy Hotel, 
Aug, Sth, 1917/ 


174 


The Pan-German Drea-m 


Queen's Hall, 
Aug, 4:thj 1917. 


178 


The Russian Revolution 


Birkenhead, 
Sept, 7th, 1917. 


187 


The Destruction of a False 
Ideal .— 


Albert Hall, 
Oct. 22nd, 1917. ^ 


193 


A Nation^s Thanks 


House of Commons, 
Oct, 29th, 1917. J 


199 


The Co-ordination of Mili- 
tary Effort 


Paris, Nov. Idth, 
1917. 


216 


No Halfway House 


Gray's Inn, 
Dec, Uth, 1917. 


233 


The War Aims of the 
Allies 


Central Hall, 
Westminster, 
Jan, 5th, 1918. 


251 


APPENDIX 




Extracts from "Through 
Terror to Triumph" 







I. PREFACE 269 

II. queen's hall speech Sept. 19th, 1914. 273 

III. CITY TEMPLE SPEECH NoV, 10th, 1914. 290 

IV. BANGOR Feh. 2Sth, 1915. 300 

V. BANGOR Aug. 5th, 1915. 304 



EXTRACTS FROM SPEECHES 
WHILE MINISTER OF MUNITIONS 



THE GREAT CRUSADE 



MUNITIONS: PROGRESS OF BRITISH 
PRODUCTION. 

EXTRACTS FROM A SPEECH DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF 
COMMONS, DECEMBER 20tH, 1915. 

Importance of Mechanical Superiority in War, 

There has never been a war in wMch machinery 
played anything like the part which it is playing 
in this war. The place acquired by machinery in 
the arts of peace in the nineteenth century has 
been won by machinery in the grim art of war in 
the twentieth century. In no war ever fought in 
this world has the preponderance of machinery 
been so completely established. The German suc- 
cesses, such as they are, are entirely, or almost 
entirely, due to the mechanical preponderance 
which they achieved at the beginning of the war. 
Their advances in the East, West, and South are 
due to this mechanical superiority; and our fail- 
ure to drive them back in the West and to check 
their advance in the East is also attributable to 
the tardiness with which the Allies developed 
their mechanical resources. The problem of vic- 
tory is one of seeing that this superiority of the 

11 



12 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

Central Powers shall be temporary, and shall be 
brought to an end at the earliest possible moment. 
There is one production in which the Allies had a 
complete mechanical superiority, and there they 
are supreme — that is in the Navy. Our command 
of the sea is attributable not merely to the excel- 
lence of our sailors, but to the overwhelming su- 
periority of our machinery. 

There is another aspect of this question which 
has become more and more evident as this war 
has developed and progressed. The machine 
spares the man. The machine is essential to de- 
fend positions of peril, and it saves life, because 
the more machinery you have for defence, the 
more thinly you can hold the line ; therefore, the 
fewer men are placed in positions of jeopardy to 
life and limb. We have discovered that some of 
the German advanced lines were held by excep- 
tionally few men. It is a pretty well-known fact 
that one very strong position, held by the Ger- 
mans for days and even for weeks, was defended 
against a very considerable French army by 
ninety men, armed with about forty to fifty ma- 
chiue-guns, the French losing heavily in making 
the attack. Machinery in that case spared the 
men who were defending. It is one portion of the 
function which has been entrusted to the Ministry 
of Munitions to increase the supply of machines 
in order to save the lives of our gallant men. On 
the other hand, it means fewer losses in attacking 
positions of peril, because it demolishes machine- 



MUNITIONS 13 

gun emplacements, tears up barbed wire, destroys 
trenches. What we stint in materials we squan- 
der in life; that is the one great lesson of muni- 
tions. 

Necessity for an Overwhelming Mass of Material. 

I should like to dwell a little upon two consider- 
ations, because they are of overwhelming impor- 
tance. I have heard rumours that we are over- 
doing it, over-ordering, over-building, over-pro- 
ducing. Nothing could be more malevolent or 
more mischievous. You can talk about over-or- 
dering when we have as much as the Germans 
have, and even then I should like to argue how 
far we have to go. So mischievous is that kind 
of talk that I cannot help thinking that it must 
have originated from men of pro-German sym- 
pathies, who know how important it is that our 
troops should, at the critical moment, be short of 
that overwhelming mass of material which alone 
can break down the resistance of a highly en- 
trenched foe. In spite of our great efforts, we 
have not yet approached the German and French 
production. We have got to reach that first and 
not last. France is of opinion that even her colos- 
sal efforts are inadequate. I have consulted gen- 
erals and officers of experience in the British and 
French armies. The conferences which I have 
had with the Minister of Munitions in France 
have given me full opportunity of obtaining the 
views of the most highly placed and distinguished 
offi-cers in the French Army. Before I quote their 



14 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

opinions let me point out that all tliese generals 
up to the present have invariably underestimated 
the quantity of materials necessary to secure vic- 
tory. I am not surprised. It is so prodigious. A 
great French general — one of the greatest — ^who 
has studied tactics with the highest authorities 
says that that is the great surprise of the war. 
Every battle that has been fought has demon- 
strated one thing: that even now it is an under- 
estimate and not an overestimate. Take the last 
great battle — that of Loos. You had a prodigious 
accumulation of ammunition. There is not a gen- 
eral who was in the battle who in giving his report 
does not tell you that with three times the quan- 
tity of ammunition, especially in the heavier na- 
tures, they would have achieved twenty times the 
result. 

False Economy, 

It is too early to talk about over-production. 
The most fatuous way of economising is to pro- 
duce an inadequate supply. A good margin is but 
a sensible insurance. Less than enough is a fool- 
ish piece of extravagance. £200,000,000 will pro- 
duce an enormous quantity of ammunition. It is 
forty days ' cost of the war. If you have it at the 
crucial moment your war might be won in the 
forty days. If you have not, it might run to 400 
days. What sort of economy is that! But it does 
not merely mean that. It means this — and this is 
a fact which I mean to repeat in every speech that 
I make on the question : What you spare in money 



MUNITIONS 15 

you spill in blood. I have a very remarkable 
photograph of the battlefield of Loos, taken imme- 
diately after the battle. There is barbed wire 
which had not been destroyed. There is one ma- 
chine-gun emplacement intact — only one! The 
others had been destroyed. There, in front of the 
barbed wire, lie hundreds of gallant men. There 
was one machine gun — one! 

These are the accidents you can obviate. How? 
Every soldier tells me there is but one way of 
doing it. You must have enough ammunition to 
crash in eveiy trench wherein the enemy lurks, to 
destroy every concrete emplacement, to shatter 
every machine-gun, to rend and tear every yard of 
barbed wire, so that if the enemy want to resist 
they will have to do it in the open, face to face 
with better men than themselves. That is the 
secret — aplenty of ammunition. I hope that this 
idea that we are turning out too much will not 
enter into the mind of workman, capitalist, tax- 
payer, or anybody until we have enough to crash 
our way through to victory. You must spend 
wisely; you must spend to the best purpose; you 
must not pay extravagant prices; but, for 
Heaven's sake, if there are risks to be taken, let 
them be risks for the pocket of the taxpayer, and 

not for the lives of the soldiers ! 

* * * * * 

Too Late? 

There is only one appeal to employer and em- 
ployed; it is the appeal to patriotism! The em- 



16 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

ployer must take steps. He is loth to do it. It is 
a sort of inertia which comes to tired and over- 
strained men — as they all are. They must really 
face the local trade imions, and put forward the 
demand, because until they do so the State cannot 
come in. We have had an Act of Parliament, but 
the law must be put into operation by somebody. 
Unless the employer begins by putting on the 
lathes unskilled men and women we cannot en- 
force that Act of Parliament. The first step, 
therefore, is that the employer must challenge a 
decision upon the matter. He is not doing so be- 
cause of the trouble which a few other firms have 
had. But victory depends upon it 1 Hundreds of 
thousands of precious lives depend upon it ! It is a 
question of whether you are going to bring this 
war victoriously to an end in a year or whether 
it is going to linger on in bloodstained paths for 
years. Labour has the answer. The contract was 
entered into with labour. We are carrying it out. 
It can be done. I wonder whether it will not be 
too late ! Ah ! fatal words of this war ! Too late 
in moving here ! Too late in arriving there ! Too 
late in coming to this decision ! Too late in start- 
ing with enterprises ! Too late in preparing ! In 
this war the footsteps of the Allied forces have 
been dogged by the mocking spectre of **Too 
Late"; and unless we quicken our movements 
damnation will fall on the sacred cause for which 
so much gallant blood has flowed. I beg employers 
and workmen not to have **Too Late" inscribed 
upon the portals of their workshops! 



MUNITIONS 17 

We can still Win. 

Everything in the next few months of this war 
depends upon it. What has happened ? We have 
had the co-operation of our Allies. Great results 
have been arrived at. At the last conference of 
the Allies decisions were arrived at which will af- 
fect the whole conduct of the war. The carrying 
of them out depends upon the workmen of this 
country. The superficial facts of the war are for 
the moment against us. All the fundamental facts 
are in our favour. That means we have every 
reason for looking the facts steadily in the face. 
There is nothing but encouragement in them if we 
look beneath the surface. The chances of victory 
are still with us. We have thrown away many 
chances, but for the most part the best still 
remains. In this war the elements that make for 
success in a short war were with our enemies. All 
the advantages that make for victory in a long war 
were ours, and are still! Better preparation be- 
fore the war, interior lines, unity of command — 
those belonged to the enemy. He had a better con- 
ception at first of what war really meant. More 
than that, he has undoubtedly shown greater 
readiness than we to learn the lessons of the war 
and to adapt himself to them. Heavy guns, ma- 
chine-guns, trench warfare — that was his study. 
Our study was the sea. We have accomplished 
our task there to the last letter of the promise. 

The advantages of a protracted war are ours. 
We have an overwhelming superiority in the 



18 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

raw material of war. It is still with us in spite of 
the fact that the Central Powers have by their 
successes increased their reserve of men and ma- 
terial. We have the command of the sea that 
gives us ready access to neutral countries. Above 
all — and this tells in a long war — we have the bet- 
ter cause. It is better for the heart. Nations do 
not endure to the end for a bad cause. 

All these advantages are ours. But this is the 
moment of intense preparation. It is the moment 
of putting the whole of our energies at home into 
preparing for the blow to be struck abroad. Our 
Fleet and the gallantry of the troops of the Allies 
have given us time to muster our reserves. Let 
us utilise that time without the loss of a moment. 
Let us cast aside the fond illusion that you can 
win victory by elaborate pretence that you are 
doing so. Let us fling to one side rivalries and 
jealousies, trade, professional, and political. Let 
us be one people^ — one in aim, one in action, one in 
resolution to win the most sacred cause ever en- 
trusted to a great nation. 



A WORD TO THE MUNITION WORKERS. 

EXTRACTS FROM A SPEECH DELIVERED AT PONDER ^S END 

SHELL FACTORY, FEBRUARY 3rD, 1916, ON OPENING THE 

Y. M. C. A. DINING ROOMS FOR THE WORKERS. 

This war is going to make a difference in the 
life of this country and of the world, a difference 
for better or for worse which you cannot calculate. 
This is one of those moments in the history of the 
world when it takes a plunge downwards or a flight 
upwards. Which it takes depends not upon our 
soldiers alone, it depends upon our workmen also. 
I can see now the difference which it is making in 
Britain. In the old days the hustler was regarded 
as an alien enemy who had come to this country to 
steal the bread of the easygoing Briton; but we 
have discovered that the hustler is a British-bom 
subject, living among us. John Bull was getting 
soft, flabby, fat and indolent. He was just slouch- 
ing along. Then the war came, and now his tissues 
are as firm as ever; he is alert, vigorous, and 
strong; he is hitting hard, and is going to work 
his way through to victory. John Bull is young 
again ; the war has rejuvenated him. I see before 
me 2,000 men who mean business. There are a 
million more outside, and more than a million in 
France and elsewhere oversea waiting for muni- 

19 



20 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

tions. I know you will not disappoint them. They 
are gallant and brave fellows. Theirs the discom- 
fort, theirs the danger, theirs, too often, the sacri- 
fice. Put forth the whole of your strength, as you 
are doing to-day, and their sacrifice will not be in 
vain. 



WINNING THIS WAR. 

SPEECH DELIVERED AT CONWAY, TO A MEETING OF 
CONSTITUENTS, MAY 6tH, 1916. 

I AM very delighted to find surroimding me to- 
day old political friends who have been fighting 
many doughty battles by my side for nearly a gen- 
eration. I am also delighted to find here men who 
have been fighting political battles against me 
The task we have in hand is not the task of one 
party or of two parties, but a task for the nation 
as a whole, and we wish to preserve absolute na- 
tional unity until we secure national strength. It 
is not always easy. I am not enough of a hunts- 
man to know what happens if two packs happen 
to get mixed up together. But, after all, we are 
rational human beings, and we know that the one 
condition of victory is unity. 

The Supply of Munitions, 

About a year ago to-day I addressed a meeting 
at Bangor. My object then was to endeavour to 
impress the nation with a sense not merely of the 
magnitude of the issues at stake, but of the mag- 
nitude of the enterprise and of the gravity of the 
task. I then urged that we should mobilise all the 

21 



22 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

national resources, whether of men or materials, 
in order to carry us through triumphantly. 

I should have liked to tell you what has hap- 
pened since in the way of organising and en- 
gineering the resources of this country to pro- 
vide our gallant troops at the front with abund- 
ance of munitions to enable them to face the foe. 
I hope to be able to do so shortly in the House of 
Conunons. In another month I shall have accom- 
plished a year's work at the Ministry of Muni- 
tions, and it will be my duty to render an account 
of my stewardship. For the present all I can tell 
you is this, that we have increased enormously 
not merely the output, but — what is more impor- 
tant in a long war — the capacity to turn out muni- 
tions of war. 

The Supply of Men: '^ A Great Crusade/' 

At that time we had more men than equipment. 
I therefore dwelt rather on munitions. At that 
date men were cpmiag in in such numbers that we 
had no equipment for them, and our difficulties 
were not in raising armies, but in fitting them for 
their work. Later in the year there was a falling 
off. The flood-tide seemed to have abated; but 
meanwhile the achievement of the nation in raising 
by voluntary methods those huge armies was 
something of which we might very well be proud. 
It was almost unparalleled in the history of war, 
and nothing which has happened since in the way 
of compulsory measures can ever detract from 



WINNING THIS WAR 23 

the pride we possess in the fact that we are the 
first nation in the history of the world that has 
raised over three millions of men for any great 
military enterprise purely by voluntary means. 
Young men from every quarter of this country 
flocked to the standard of international right as 
to a great crusade. It was a glorious achievement, 
and well may Britain be proud of it. 

The Advent of Compulsion. 

But, as I pointed out, the numbers fell off some- 
what towards the end of last summer, and it be- 
came abundantly clear about August and Septem- 
ber that if we were to carry through this war and 
get an adequate supply of men for the purpose we 
should have to resort to other methods. There 
is no indignity in compulsion. Compulsion simply 
means that a nation is organising itself in an or- 
derly, consistent, resolute fashion for war. Taxes 
are compulsory, although I should say there is no 
one here who has discovered that because he has 
paid them willingly compulsion and voluntaryism 
are not inconsistent in a democratic nation. Com- 
pulsion simply means the will of the majority of 
the people — the voluntary decision of the major- 
ity. Unless you had had a majority, an over- 
whelming majority, compulsion would have been 
impossible. So compulsion is simply organised 
voluntary effort. You must organise effort when 
a nation is in peril. You cannot run a war as you 
run a Sunday-school treat, where one man volun- 



24 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

tarily brings the buns, another man supplies the 
tea and another brings the kettle, one looks after 
the boiling and another takes round the teacups, 
some contribute in cash, and a good many lounge 
about and just make the best of what is going. 
You cannot run a war like that. 



The Sons of France and Conscription. 

Have you noticed what our Allies are doing? 
Do you think the sons of France have gone under 
the shadow of the lash to defend her? If you had 
been there, you would have known different. The 
moment the country was in peril, not as a matter 
of duty, not as a legal obligation, but as a matter 
of right, as a matter of will, each son of France 
rallied to her flag, and it was the pride of every 
daughter of France of her free will to give those 
she loved for France. What struck me there was 
that there was no complaint, that they did not 
boast about it; it was something they took for 
granted that when France was in peril everybody, 
as a matter of privilege, should go and fight for 
her. Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, the great 
motto of France — I will tell you what it means. 
When the country is in danger, then liberty means 
the right of every man to defend her; equality 
means equality of sacrifice of every man and 
woman of France ; fraternity means the brother- 
hood of endurance, effort, victory for France. 
That is what it means. 

I met one of the most important men in France 



WINNING THIS WAR ^ 

who had just had a letter from his boy of nine- 
teen in the trenches, and this is what the lad said : 
*'I thank God that I was bom in the year 1897, 
because it has given me the opportunity of laying 
down my life for France in 1916/' That is the 
spirit of the whole nation, which does not regard 
conscription as something that compels them to 
do their duty, but purely as an organisation of the 
will of everybody to strike a blow for their native 
land. 

Our Contributions. 

I do not say we can make the same contribution 
in men in proportion to the population as France 
has done. It was generally supposed that I sug- 
gested that the other night in the House of Com- 
mons. I did not. We cannot do so. Why? We 
are supplying France with steel, with coal, with 
the material for explosives. We are supplying 
other Allies with munitions of war, we are supply- 
ing them generally with transport on the seas, we 
have in addition to a great army the greatest 
navy in the world — and well do our Allies, and 
still better do our foes, know that. The number of 
men engaged in equipping the Navy with muni- 
tions of war is almost as great as the numbers 
who are engaged in France on producing muni- 
tions for their army. We must take all that into 
account. 



26 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

Compulsion and Liberalism, 

I tliought the necessity for compulsion had 
arisen in September. I still think so. I have come 
here to talk quite frankly to you. It is no use 
talking together over grave issues like this unless 
we are quite frank with each other. Every effort 
was made to save the voluntary system by the 
groups of Lord Derby's scheme, and for myself I 
cannot express the admiration which I have for 
the colossal effort put forward by Lord Derby. 
But Lord Derby's scheme was not the voluntary 
system. If you say to a man, **You come down 
from there. I will give you five minutes, and if 
you don't I shall ask a policeman to fetch you 
down," would that be voluntary, or would it be 
compulsory? As a matter of fact, there is no doubt 
at all, judged now by experience, — and we are all 
very wise after the event, — ^that the Derby cam- 
paign had a great many of the disadvantages of 
compulsion and voluntaryism without the advan- 
tages of either. However, I do not want to go back 
upon that. That is what is known in the City as 
* 'jobbing backwards." "What stands now is this, 
that the House of Commons, by an overwhelming 
majority, has declared that the time has arrived 
for putting a compulsory scheme into operation, 
and the majority has increased. 

I am told that the fact that I supported it proves 
that I am no longer a Liberal. "Well, there must 
be a good many Liberals in the same plight, be- 
cause the other night barely one-tenth of the Lib- 



WINNING THIS WAR 2T 

eral Party voted against it. All tlie rest voted for 
it. Well, then, there is no Liberal Party alive! 
The Liberals had only twenty-eight members in 
the House. They nsed to have 280. What has 
happened to all the rest? They must be turned 
Tory! After all, as I tried to point out in the 
House of Commons, — and nobody has challenged 
the historical truth of what I said — great de- 
mocracies in peril have always had to resort to 
compulsion to save themselves. Empires have been 
saved by compulsion, so have Republics. Three 
Republics, at any rate, have been saved by com- 
pulsion. It is purely, as I said, a means of organ- 
ising the strength and virility of a nation to save 
itself from oppression, and that is why, as a Lib- 
eral fighting the battle of liberty in Europe, I 
have no shame in declaring for compulsory enlist- 
ment as I would for compulsory taxes or for com- 
pulsory education, or, if you will allow me, for 
compulsory insurance. Some of my friends are 
now very angry with me. I happen to be what is 
known in Parliamentary language and through 
life as a ** contentious subject.'' However, I have 
attempted to go through with it, but many are very 
angry with me because I supported conscription 
in September. In September it was heresy, in 
January it is the true faith. Why? WTiy, if it is 
a matter of principle ? What has made the heresy 
of September orthodox in January? Nothing that 
I can see, except that in January it had the re- 
deeming feature of tardiness and inadequacy. 
But there it is. It has been carried by the efforts 



28 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

of the two great parties, and, unless I am mis- 
taken, there was only a minority in the Labour 
Party who voted against it. 



^^ Poison Gas." 

But, talking of attacks, I have been subjected to 
a cloudy discharge of poison gas. I am glad it 
has been done. These things had been going on 
clandestinely and surreptitiously for months and 
I could not deal with them. My difficulty was that 
no self-respecting man or newspaper could be 
found to give publicity to these attacks, and there- 
fore I could not answer them. I am not surprised. 
We, after all, are a country that has produced mil- 
lions of fighters, but we very rarely in history pro- 
duced an assassin. They found one at last. If 
I may be allowed to alter my metaphor — and I like 
to speak in parables — ^there is one very disagree- 
able form of neighbour which you have in a town 
or suburb. He is the man who gathers together 
all the vile weeds in his garden, and, when the 
wind is favourable, sets fire to them when he is 
quite sure the fumes will go towards his innocent 
neighbour. Well, all you have to do — ^there is an 
advantage in it, you know it can only happen once 
— you just either keep away or hold your nostrils, 
and you know it will be burnt out. That I am 
going to do. 

I saw that I was expected to give a full reply 
to what they are pleased to call these criticisms. I 
shall do nothing of the kind. This is a great war. 



WINNING THIS WAR ^9 

Millions of gallant lives have fallen; the fate of 
Europe, the fate, perhaps, of the British Empire 
— 'perhaps the fate of human liberty for genera- 
tions — is trembling in the balance, and if any man 
believes, on the testimony of the person who pub- 
lishes or invents private conversation in order to 
malign a friend — if any man believes that I am 
capable amid such terrible surroundings of mak- 
ing use of them for a base and treacherous in- 
trigue to advance my private ends, let him believe 
it. I seek neither his friendship nor his support. 
I reserve my sympathy for those who get either, 
and my disdain for those who merit it. 

Charges of Disloyalty : What ConstiPuies Loyalty. 

But there are honest Liberals who have no taste 
for that kind of nauseous slander who are worried 
about two things. For them I have an answer. 
What are the two things 1 I have told you I have 
come here to speak frankly. You are my con- 
stituents. You have stood by me for thirty years, 
and you are entitled to know what I am about. 
There are people who say, *^What is he up to 
now?'* I am going to tell you what I am up to — 
I am up to winning this war. 

But let me tell you what are the two things that 
trouble honest and sincere Liberals. One is that 
I seem to have some differences of opinion with 
my chief. I have worked with him for ten years ; 
I have served under him for eight. If we had not 
worked harmoniously — and we have — ^let me teU 



30 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

you here at once it would have been my fault and 
not Ms. I never worked with any one who could 
be more considerate. But we have had our dif- 
ferences. Good heaven ! What use would I have 
been if I had not differed 1 I should have been no 
use at all. He has shown me great kindnesses 
during the years I have worked with him. I 
should have ill requited them if I had not told my 
opinions freely, frankly, independently, whether 
they agreed with his or not. 

Freedom of speech is essential everywhere, but 
there is one place where it is vital, and that is in 
the Council Chamber. The councillor who pro- 
fesses to agree with everything that falls from his 
leader has betrayed him. Napoleon, who was a 
great leader of men, discouraged free discussion 
everywhere except in the council of war. There 
he encouraged it. He promoted it, he did not 
ask the people there to say ditto to what he pro- 
fessed, and if there had been any foolish news- 
papers in that day who, the moment they discov- 
ered that councillors inside Napoleon's Council 
Chamber had dared to disapprove of his plans, 
published the fact and denounced them as cavil- 
lers, traitors, and intriguers, they would have done 
infinite harm to France, for they would have 
ruined Napoleon. There are twenty-three of us 
and if we all came together with exactly the same 
mind, exactly the same plan, exactly the same pro- 
posals and schemes, what a marvel it would have 
been, and how worthless would it have been ! 

After all, in the Council Chamber you want free 



WINNING THIS WAR 31 

expression of opinion. You want a variety of 
opinions expressed, and the height of wisdom 
is in knowing, not what counsel to give, but which 
counsel to take. Many men, many minds, and if 
there are not many minds you may depend upon 
it there are not very many men. They are not 
men, but automatons, and what I want to know is 
this, whether the nation in a great war wants coun- 
sellors or mere penny-in-the-slot machines. If the 
latter, then all I can say is I desire to be no part of 
the equipment. 

^^Wage War with all your might,'' 

Let me give you a second matter which seems 
to be worrying some of my very best Liberal 
friends. They are rather shocked in their hearts 
because I am throwing such fervour into the 
prosecution of the war. Well, I hate war. I very 
often feel a sense of shock pass through my sys- 
tem when I realise what the terrible machines 
which I am helping to manufacture are intended 
for. But you either make war or you don't. It 
is the business of statesmen to strain every nerve 
to keep a nation out of war, but once they are in 
it, it is also their business to wage it with all 
their might. It is the old story, Beware of en- 
trance-to a quarrel, but being in it, see that thine 
enemy beware of thee. That is the reason why 
men can wage effective war only when they have 
either a good conscience or no conscience at all. 
The latter has been the German case. I also hate 



32 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

war, and that is the reason why I want this to be 
the last, and it won't be unless this war is effec- 
tively waged by us. A badly conducted war means 
a bad peace, and a bad peace means no peace at 
all. That is why I have urged that this war should 
be conducted with determination. 



The Need for Resolution. 

You must not only be resolute, but you must ap- 
pear to be resolute. I have heard a good deal of 
criticism of the Government — some of it very un- 
fair, some of it very ill-informed, a good deal of it 
rather shrewish — ^but I will tell you at once the 
criticism I have had most difficulty in answering. 
I will put it in this form — that we are a huge, un- 
wieldy van, very good material in all its parts, 
but rather lacking in propelling power, and for 
that reason, whenever we come to an obstacle or 
declivity, we rather roll and ricket and threaten 
to come to a standstill. One set of men, we are 
told, pushes one way, another set of men pushes 
another way, and a further set of men undoubt- 
edly tries to throw us over altogether, and the di- 
rection in which we go depends on the largest 
number of men who are pushing or upon the pur- 
chase which they have got at the moment. 

I do not think it is fair criticism altogether, and 
it does not sufficiently take into account enormous 
difficulties which you have in a great war like this. 
We have accomplished enormous results in the 
raising of armies and in their equipment, when 



WINNING THIS WAR 33 

you consider that we began with about the tiniest 
army in Europe, smaller than the Serbian Army, 
and that we now have one of the greatest and best 
equipped armies in the world. Still I agree that 
in conducting a war a Government should not only 
be resolute but appear resolute. War is a terrible 
business, but men will face all its horrors if they 
have confidence in their leaders. But if there is 
hesitation, if there is timidity, if there is the ap- 
pearance of irresolution, the bravest hearts will 
fail. The spirit of the nation is the propellant of 
its armies. Therefore it is important, whatever 
happens, that you should have confidence that the 
Government is doing its best in the firmest and 
most resolute manner to conduct the war. That 
is why I have had no sympathy with those who 
seem to think that because war is hateful you 
ought to fight it with a savour of regret in your 
actions. Doubting hand never yet struck a firm 
blow. 

^^ Freedom at Stake/' 

In any action which I have taken since the war 
I am not conscious of having departed from any 
principle which I ever enunciated to you on this 
platform. I came into politics to fight for the 
under dog, and it has been all the same to me 
whether he was an underpaid agricultural la- 
bourer, a sick workman, an infirm and broken old 
man or woman who had given their lives to the 
country, a poor slum dweller, or a small nation 
harried by voracious Empires. In fighting this 



34 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

war I have simply, in my judgment, been carrying 
out the principles which I have advocated on this 
platform now for thirty years of my life. I have 
had no illusions as to what this war means or 
meant. I have always felt that the life of this 
Empire was at stake, and I know how much de- 
pends on that life. With all its faults, the British 
Empire, here and across the seas, stands for freer, 
better, ampler, nobler conditions of life for man. 
I believed that in this war freedom was at stake, 
so I have thrown myself with all my heart and 
soul and strength into working for victory. 

Facing the Facts. 

Nor have I ever had any doubts about the re- 
sult, if we fought with intelligence and with reso- 
lution. The fundamental facts are in our favour. 
"We have command of the seas. We have it now 
more completely than we ever had. The resources 
of raw material for arms, men, and equipment are 
ours. But it takes time to bring them all into full 
operation. The business, of the enemy is to de- 
stroy or to wear out one of the Allies or break up 
the alliance before that time comes. Our business 
is to minimise those risks, shortening the time 
within which we can bring out our own maximum 
strength to bear on the enemy. 

But I want to say one thing, time is not an ally. 
It is a doubtful neutral at the present moment and 
has not yet settled on our side. But time can be 
won ovei by effort, by preparation, by determina- 



WINNING THIS WAR 85 

tion, by organisation. We must reckon fearlessly 
the forces of the enemy. We must impartially, in- 
telligently, reckon our own. There is no greater 
stupidity in a war than to underestimate the forces 
with which you have to contend. Calculate them 
to the last man, add them up to the last man, add 
them up to the last shilling. See what you have to 
face, and then face it. Then I have no doubt of 
victory. 

We must have unity among the Allies, design, 
and co-ordination. Unity we undoubtedly possess. 
No alliance that ever existed has worked in more 
perfect unison and harmony than the present one. 
Design and co-ordination leave yet a good deal 
to be desired. Strategy must come before geog- 
raphy. The Central Powers are pooling their 
forces, all their intelligence, all their brains, all 
their efforts. We have the means. They too often 
have the methods. Let us apply their methods to 
our means and we win. 



tc 



Trust the People/' 



And then we shall come to the reckoning for the 
long, dreary, cruel tale of wrong ; the outrages on 
Belgium, the atrocities in Poland, the barbarisms 
of Wittenberg, the inhumanities of the Lusitania, 
The long account must be settled to the last farth- 
ing. That is why I attach so much importance 
to this nation, which has so often led the battle 
of right and freedom in Europe, mobilising the 
whole of its strength for this great purpose. 



36 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

I have no fear of the people. Britain will fight 
it out. We are a sluggish people, but no one ever 
made the mistake that we were faint-hearted with- 
out suffering for it. I believe in the old motto, 
*^ Trust the People." Tell them what is happen- 
ing. There is nothing to conceal. Have all the 
facts before them. They are a courageous people, 
but they never put forward their best effort in 
this land until they face the alternative of dis- 
aster. Tell them what they are confronted with 
and they will rise to every occasion. Look at the 
way they are doing it. The people are capable of 
rising to greater heights than even their truest 
leaders ever believed. Look at the way, the cheer- 
ful way — it is the amazement of every man who 
has been at the front — they are enduring hard- 
ships, wounds, facing danger and death on the 
battlefield. Look at the calm, quiet courage with 
which the men and women at home are enduring 
grief. You can trust the people. 

I read a story the other day about a mining 
camp at the foot of a black mountain in the great 
West. The diggers had been toiling long and hard 
with but scant encouragement for their labours, 
and one night a terrible storm swept over the 
mountain. An earthquake shattered its hard sur- 
face and hurled its rocks about ; and in the morn- 
ing in the rents and fissures they found a rich de- 
posit of gold. This is a great storm that is sweep- 
ing over the favoured lands of Europe ; but in this 
night of terror you will find that the hard crust of 



WINNING THIS WAR 37 

selfishness and greed has been shattered, and in 
the rent hearts of the people you will find treas- 
ures, golden treasures, of courage, steadfastness, 
endurance, devotion, and of the faith that endur- 
eth for ever. 



SECRETARY OF STATE FOR WAR 



WHY SHOULD WE NOT SING? 

SPEECH DELIVERED AT ABERYSTWYTH, AT THE WELSH 
NATIONAL EISTEDDFOD, AUGUST 17tH, 1916. 

I HAVE come here at some inconvenience to at- 
tend, and if necessary to defend, this Eisteddfod. 
I have been a strong advocate of its being held. I 
was anxious there should be no interruption on 
account of the war in the continuity of the Welsh 
National Eisteddfod. It is too valuable an insti- 
tution, it has rendered too great services to our 
country to risk its life by placing it into a state of 
suspended animation for an indefinite period. The 
British Association has held its meetings every 
year since the war began ; it will hold another next 
month, and I am glad of it ; but much as I esteem 
the services rendered to research by that gather- 
ing, I claim that the services rendered to popular 
culture by the National Eisteddfod have been 
even greater. 

There are a few people who know nothing about 
the Eisteddfod who treat it as if it were merely an 
annual jolhfication which eccentric people indulge 
in. There was a letter appearing in The Times 
this week written by a person who seems to hold 
that opinion. He signs himself '*A Welshman." 
He evidently thinks that tlie publication of his 

41 



42 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

name would add notliiiig to the weiglit of his ap- 
peal, so he has — ^wisely, no doubt — ^withheld it. 
Now The Times is not exactly the organ of the 
Welsh peasantry. That does not matter to this 
gentleman, because he makes it clear that he has 
no objection to common people attending the Eis- 
teddfod; but he expresses the earnest hope that 
important people like the "Welsh M.P.'s will not 
encourage such an improper assembly by giving 
it their presence. His notion of the Eisteddfod is 
a peculiar one, and as there might be a few people 
outside Wales who hold the same views, I think I 
must refer to this estimate of its purport and sig- 
nificance. He places it in the same category as a 
football match or a horse-race and a good deal 
beneath a cinema or music-hall performance. 
These are kept going afternoon and evening with- 
out the^ slightest protest in the columns of The 
Times from this egregious Welshman. 

The competing bards are to him so many race- 
horses started round the course by Mr. L. D. 
Jones, the chairing day being, I suppose, the 
Bardic Oaks. Sir Vincent Evans would be the 
grand bookmaker, who arranges the stakes, and of 
course we all have something on one or other of 
the starters. The meetings of the Cymmrodorion, 
the Gorsedd of the Bards, the Arts Section, the 
Folklore Society, the Union of the Welsh Socie- 
ties, and the Bibliographical Society are the side- 
shows which amuse the Eisteddfodic larrikins 
whilst the race is not on. That is where the 
thimble-rigging and the cocoauut shies and games 



WHY SHOULD WE NOT SING? 43 

of that sort are carried on! No wonder this in- 
telligent gentleman is ashamed to avow his name. 
I challenge him to give it. It will be useful as a 
warning to readers of English papers of the class 
who anonymously insult Welsh institutions. 

Let any man look through this programme and 
see for himself what the Eisteddfod means — prizes 
for odes, sonnets, translations from Latin and 
Greek literature, essays on subjects philosophical, 
historical, sociological. An adequate treatment 
of some of these subjects necessarily involves a 
good deal of original research. Art is encour- 
aged ; even agriculture is not forgotten. Forsooth, 
all this effort should be dropped on account of the 
war ! To encourage idle persons to compose poet- 
ry during war is unpatriotic. Promoting culture 
amongst the people, a futile endeavour at all 
times, during the war is something every Welsh 
member of Parliament ought to snub. To give a 
prize for a study of the social and industrial con- 
ditions of a Welsh village is dangerous at any 
time, and during a war it is doubly so. To excite 
the interest of the people in literature during the 
war is a criminal waste of public money. Above 
all, to sing during a war, and especially to sing 
national songs during a war, is positively inde- 
cent, and the powers of the Defence of the Realm 
Act ought at once to be invoked to suppress it. 
Hush ! No music, please ; there is a war on ! 

Why should we not sing during war? Why, 
especially, should we not sing at this stage of the 
war? The blinds of Britain are not down yet, 



44 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

nor are they likely to be. The honour of Britain 
is not dead, her might is not broken, her destiny 
is not fulfilled, her ideals are not shattered by her 
enemies. She is more than alive ; she is more po- 
tent, she is greater than she ever was. Her domin- 
ions are wider, her influence is deeper, her pur- 
pose is more exalted than ever. Why should her 
children not sing? I know war means suffering, 
war means sorrow. Darkness has fallen on many 
a devoted household, but it has been ordained that 
the best singer amongst the birds of Britain should 
give its song in the night, and according to legend 
that sweet song is one of triumph over pain. 
There are no nightingales this side of the Severn. 
Providence rarely wastes its gifts. We do not 
need this exquisite songster in Wales ; we can pro- 
vide better. There is a bird in our villages which 
can beat the best of them. He is called Y Cymro. 
He sings in joy, he sings also in sorrow; he sings 
in prosperity, he sings also in adversity. He sings 
at play, he sings at work; he sings in the sun- 
shine, he sings in the storm; he sings in the day- 
time, he sings also in the night ; he sings in peace ; 
why should he not sing in war? Hundreds of wars 
have swept over these hills, but the harp of Wales 
has never yet been silenced by one of them, and I 
should be proud if I contributed something to keep 
it in tune during the war by the holding of this 
Eisteddfod to-day. 

Our soldiers sing the songs of Wales in the 
trenches, and they hold the little Eisteddfod be- 
hind them. Here is a telegram which has been 



WHY SHOULD WE NOT SING? 45 

received by the secretary of the Eisteddfod from 
them. The telegram says: ^* Greetings and best 
wishes for success to the Eisteddfod and Cym- 
anfa Ganu from Welshmen in the field. Next 
Eisteddfod we shall be with you.'' Please God, 
they will. That telegram is from the 38th Welsh 
Division. They do not ask ns to stop singing. 
There is not one of them who would not be sorry 
if we gave up our National Eisteddfod during the 
war. They want to feel that while they are up- 
holding the honour of Wales on the battlefields 
of Europe, Asia, and Africa, we are doing our 
best to keep alive all the institutions, educational, 
literary, musical, religious, which have made 
Wales what it is to them. They want the fires on 
every national altar kept burning, so that they 
shall be alight when they return with the laurels 
of victory from the stricken fields of this mighty 
war. That is why I am in favour of holding this 
festival of Welsh literature and of song even in 
the middle of Armageddon. 

But I have another and even more urgent reason 
for wishing to keep this Eisteddfod alive during 
the war. WTien this terrible conflict is over a wave 
of materialism will sweep over the land. Nothing 
will count but machinery and output. I am all for 
output, and I have done my best to improve ma- 
chinery and increase output. But that is not all. 
There is nothing more fatal to a people than that 
it should narrow its vision to the material needs of 
the hour. National ideals without imagination 
are but as the thistles of the wilderness, fit neither 



46 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

for food nor fuel. A nation that depends upon 
them must perish. We shall need at the end of 
the war better workshops, but we shall also need 
more than ever every institution that will exalt 
the vision of the people above and beyond the 
workshop and the counting-house. We shall need 
every national tradition that will remind them 
that men cannot live by bread alone. 

I make no apology for advocating the holding 
of the Eisteddfod in the middle of this great con- 
flict, even although it were merely a carnival of 
song, as it has been stigmatised. The storm is 
raging as fiercely as ever, but now there is a shim- 
mer of sunshine over the waves, there is a rain- 
bow on the tumult of surging waters. The strug- 
gle is more terrible than it has ever been, but 
the legions of the oppressor are being driven back 
and the banner of right is pressing forward. Why 
should we not sing? It is true there are thousands 
of gallant men falling in the fight — ^let us sing of 
their heroism. There are myriads more standing 
in the battle-lines facing the foe, and myriads 
more behind ready to support them when their 
turn comes. Let us sing of the land that gave 
birth to so many heroes. 

I am glad that I came down from the cares and 
labour of the War Office of the British Empire to 
listen and to join with you in singing the old songs 
which our brave countrymen on the battlefield are 
singing as a defiance to the enemies of human 
right. 



YEEDUN. 

SPOKEN IN THE VAULT OF THE CITADEL OP VERDTIN, 
SEPTEMBER, 1916. 

FiEST of all I wish to tell you how glad I am that 
you asked me to sit at table with your officers in 
the heart of Verdun ^s citadel. I am glad to see 
around me those who have come back from battle, 
those who will be fighting to-morrow, and those 
who, with you, General, are sentries on these im-* 
pregnable walls. The name of Verdun alone will 
be enough to arouse imperishable memories 
throughout the centuries to come. There is not 
one of the great feats of arms which make the 
history of France which better shows the high 
qualities of the Army and the people of France; 
and that bravery and devotion to country, to 
which the world has ever paid homage, have been 
strengthened by a sang-froid and tenacity which 
yield nothing to British phlegm. 

The memory of the victorious resistance of Ver- 
dun will be immortal because Verdun saved not 
only France, but the whole of the great cause 
which is common to ourselves and humanity. The 
evil-working force of the enemy has broken itself 
against the heights around this old citadel as an 
angry sea breaks upon a granite rock. These 
heights have conquered the storm which threat- 
ened the world. 

47 



48 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

I am deeply moved when I tread this sacred 
soil, and I do not speak for myself alone. I bring 
to you a tribute of the admiration of my country, 
of the great Empire which I represent here. They 
bow with me before your sacrifice and before your 
glory. Once again, for the defence of the great 
causes with which its very future is bound up, 
mankind turns to France. **A la France! Aux 
hommes tombes sous Verdun!'' 



THE GREAT MEN OF WALES. 

SPEECH DELIVERED IN THE CARDIFF TOWN HALL ON THE 
OCCASION OF THE UNVEILING OF STATUES OF GREAT MEN 
OF WALES, PRESENTED BY LORD RHONDDA ON HIS BEING 
ADMITTED TO THE FREEDOM OF THE CITY, OCTOBER 27TH, 

1916. 

This is a theme that peculiarly demands careful 
thought and preparation — the theme of the great 
men of Wales, of whom we have representatives 
in statuary here to-day. It is a great theme. I 
can give but impressions of my own mind — ^fugi- 
tive impressions. A nation may be rich in min- 
erals, may be rich in its soil, may be rich in nat- 
ural beauties, it may be rich in its commerce ; but 
unless it is also rich in great men there is an es- 
sential ingredient to national wealth which is miss- 
ing. The great men of any nation are like moun- 
tains. They attract and assemble the vitalising 
elements in the heavens and distribute and direct 
them in the valleys and the plains so as to irrigate 
the land with their fertilising qualities. The 
world without them would be either a desert or a 
morass. Just think what England would have 
been without its great men and women of thought 
and of action — ^no Shakespeare, no Elizabeth, no 
Milton, no Cromwell, no Locke, no Chatham, no 
Wolsey, no Wesley — I could not go through the 

49 



50 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

list of the peaks in this sublime Himalayan range 
of great men and great minds. England without 
them would have been a fen of stagnant waters, 
and Wales without the great men of whom we 
have here but representatives would have been a 
.wretched swamp. We do well, then, not merely to 
honour the memory of great men, but to remind 
^the men and women of to-day of their existence 
and of their work by recording their story and 
their achievements. I should like to say one word, 
not about what each of them was in his day, but 
of what they typify in themselves as a whole. 

Welsh Civilisation an ancient one. 

The first thing that strikes me in going through 
the list is this : how old i^ the civilisation of Wales. 
There are men, I believe — at least, I have heard 
of them — ^who seem to think the civilisation of 
Wales began, let us say, with the Taff Vale Rail- 
way — ^that it developed into its present glory with 
the Barry Railway and the Bute Docks ; that even 
now you are getting into the shadows when you 
become a bona fide traveller, and that if you go 
far north the tribes would still be linked in the 
grip of savagery. It is one of the oldest civilisa- 
tions in Europe. 

Saint David. 

Look at that great figure (pointing to Dewi 
Sant). He was none the less a saint because he 



THE GREAT MEN OF WALES 51 

was a controversialist. I do not believe in **sant 
glasdwr/' * He had a real virility in his saintli- 
ness. He was a good fighter, and none the less a 
saint for that reason. What does he typify, this 
saint of the sixth century? It is a long while ago, 
the sixth centnry. It is the time of Arthur and 
the Knights of the Round Table, 1,300 years ago, 
when the Saxons were destroyers of a civilisation 
they neither comprehended nor appreciated. In 
those days Welshmen had a King who inculcated 
a new code of honour, that restrained, ennobled, 
exalted, engentled the brute forces of Europe for 
centuries. That is the civilisation of Wales. At 
the same time it had a saint who preached with 
acceptance amongst the people of the hills and the 
valleys of this land ideals which no human civilisa- 
tion can ever perfectly achieve, but the struggle 
for the attainment of which will ever purify and 
elevate the race that undertakes it. That is what 
St. David means and reminds us of, 

Giraldus. 

Now come to the twelfth century. There is 
Giraldus — a complex, tumultuous character 
;which completely fascinates anyone who meets him 
in the pages of history — half Norman, half Welsh, 
and the Welsh corpuscles in his blood waging in- 
cessant warfare on the Norman corpuscles. When 
the Welsh armies fighting the invaders triumphed 
he sat down in his cloisters and wrote a book and 

* A milk-and-watery saint. 



52 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

dreamed about things. Then the Norman rose 
and triumphed for a moment, and he started wan- 
dering off from home after fighting for dominion 
at home. You have the Norman and the Welsh- 
man fighting in the same book which he wrote. 
First of all, in his * ^ Itinerary, ' ' you find chapters 
of the most glowing eulogy upon Wales, Welsh 
literature, Welsh poetry, Welsh music, the Welsh 
character. That was written by Gerald the 
Welshman, the grandson of Nest. In the very 
following chapter there are words of the most 
scornful and scathing criticism, destruotive of 
everything Welsh, its character, its literature, its 
everything. That was written by Gerald the Nor- 
man, the son of Du Barri. He carried it so far 
that in that very book he wrote chapters instruct- 
ing the Norman how he was to subdue Wales, and 
that again was written by the Norman. He then 
in the very next chapter wrote a most elaborate 
system of strategy to teach the Welshman how to 
rebel against the Norman. That was written by 
Gerald the Welshman. It was the same man. He 
was equally sincere in both. There was no deceit. 
There was no hypocrisy. It is written in the same 
book, almost at the same time, and under the same 
signature — the same man. He had only more 
than usual of the inconsistency of all great men 
of action, because the greatest men of action are 
also the greatest dreamers, and there is, therefore, 
that wild raging conflict in each. You get it typi- 
fied in that fascinating half -Norman, half -Welsh- 
man who came from Pembrokeshire. That is Ger- 



THE GREAT MEN OF WALES 53 

aid, and a very attractive person lie is. Why do 
I dwell on him? I will tell yon. He gives a com- 
plete, detailed acconnt of Wales in the twelfth 
centnry. He wrote the very best journalistic ma- 
terial said to have been written at that time. He 
was a journalist and an impressionist, and he 
gives an account of an itinerary through Wales. 
A good many of you, if not most of you, have read 
it. If you have not read it, read it. It is a good 
thing to understand the country one is living in. 
He also gives an account of Ireland — ^but I advise 
you not to read that ! 

Early Wales. 

"What account does he give of Wales f He gives 
a description of a cultivated, refined people, de- 
voted to poetry and literature and music and re- 
ligion, devoted to the needs of the mind and of 
the soul, with a language which at that time was 
a fine medium for the most subtle expression of 
human thought, a people who believed in culture 
— ^not with a *^k" — a real culture. That is the 
description given by Gerald of Wales at that pe- 
riod. And if some of you have read — ^I have no 
doubt most of you have — Green's ^'History of 
England," one of the most charming books of his- 
tory you can ever dip in, you will find therein an 
account of that period and the influence of Welsh 
literature upon England, how the new poetry of 
the twelfth century burst forth in Wales not from 
one bard or another, but from a nation at large. 



54 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

It was a literary people, not a man here or there, 
but a whole nation — a literary nation. That was 
the Wales of the twelfth century. ^'The new en- 
thusiasm of the race,'' said Mr. Green, ^^ found an 
admirable m^ans of utterance in its tongue, as 
real a development of the old Celtic language 
heard by Caesar as the Romance tongues are de- 
velopments of Caesar's Latin, but which at a far 
earlier date than any other language of modern 
Europe had attained to definite structure and to 
settled literary form." That is what Gerald the 
Welshman represents. 

German Scholars and Welsh Poetry. 

I once had a talk with a German professor. He 
was very intelligent, one of the most intellectual 
men in Germany, and he said to me : ^ ^ We have 
been studying the literature of England, and we 
came across something we did not understand, 
something we could not account for. I think, ' ' he 
said, ^ ^ it was in the twelfth century. ' ' He added : 
**The Teuton has never been a master of lyrics, 
but we found the Saxon of England in those days 
a master of the lyrical form of poetry, and we 
said, * Where has this come from?' " They said 
** There must have been some extraneous influ- 
ence," and, with the German systematic mind, they 
followed it until at last they traced it to Wales. 
With Teutonic thoroughness they mastered the 
language, and they discovered a treasure of song 
that dazzled them — something they had never 



THE GREAT MEN OF WALES 55 

heard of, something they had never thought of as 
being in existence. That was the Wales of the 
twelfth century, overflowing into England and in- 
fluencing English literature. The poetry of Wales 
was like the Severn, rising in the Welsh hills, de- 
riving its source, deriving its inspiration, its im- 
pulse, from the mountains of Wales, overflowing 
into the plains of England, then winding back un- 
til now it forms a hitherto unbridged boundary 
between England and Wales at the very point 
where its waters are merging into the great ocean 
that laves the shores of many continents. 

Dafydd ap Gmlym. 

Here also is Dafydd ap Gwilym. He was of the 
fourteenth century. George Borrow, no mean 
judge of literary form and style, said of Dafydd 
ap Gwilym that he always considered him as the 
greatest poetical genius that had appeared in Eu- 
rope since the revival of literature. Wliile George 
Borrow had reasons perhaps other than literary 
for feeling kindly towards Dafydd ap Gwilym, all 
the same he was a great judge ; and Matthew Ar- 
nold, who was a much sterner critic, places Dafydd 
ap Gwiljrm amongst the great poets of Europe. 
He is not always easy to read, even for a Welsh- 
man. He is as difficult to read as Chaucer is. But 
when you take the trouble there are few things in 
life that give greater joy than to read some of the 
poems of Dafydd ap Gwilym. They are, undoubt- 
edly, among the things of beauty that are a joy for 



56 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

ever. They are as beautiful as the most beautiful 
valley in Wales. 



Hywel Dda. 

Here you have also the le^slator — Hywel Dda. 
It is worth while reading his laws even now — sa- 
gacious, shrewd, showing a deep insight into the 
motive powers of human nature, and withal es- 
sentially humane. The laws of Hywel Dda, if you 
put them side by side with the laws of this country 
a century ago — aye, with the laws of this country 
even now — show a greater tenderness for human 
weakness in many particulars, and they might 
very well be emulated by those who wish to see a 
country well governed and contented. 

And you have here Henry VII., the first of a 
strong dynasty of Sovereigns who founded this, 
the greatest Empire in the world. He was the 
grandson of an Anglesey gentleman farmer. You 
have the greatest hymnologist, not in Wales, but 
the greatest hymnologist in Britain — Williams of 
Pantycelyn. I wish it were possible to translate 
hymns, to translate lyrics — ah, when it is done 
what a treat is in store for our English fellow- 
countrymen! They do not realise it. It is the 
perfection of form and all poetic sentiment. 

The Orators. — A Plea. 

I am not going to refer to the others — to the 
great translator of the Bible into Welsh, for in- 



THE GREAT MEN OF WALES 57 

stance; but I should like to say one word about 
those who are not here. The greatest period in 
"Welsh history is represented by Williams Panty- 
celyn, but he was only representative of one type 
that made modern Wales. I wish it had been pos- 
sible to have had a type, first of all, of those who 
made the religious revival of Wales, and, secondly, 
of those who made the intellectual revival of 
Wales. I know how difficult it is. When you come 
nearer modem times there are always sectional 
prejudices and predilections which have to be con- 
sidered and reconciled. But if there is any dif- 
ficulty I suggest that you leave it to be settled by a 
spiritually-minded man who does not belong to 
any sect — and there are a good many of them to be 
found. 

At the end of the eighteenth century and the 
beginning of the nineteenth you had an outburst 
of oratory of the first order, such as no nation had 
ever crowded before into a half -century. [^Oratory 
is moving speech, not moving to tears, but moving 
to admiration. That may be^ rhetoric, it may be 
even literature, but it is not oratory. Oratory is 
the moving of man to action. Demosthenes moved 
his fellow-citizens to action against a tyranny that 
was impending. These great orators moved a 
people from darkness to the path that led to the 
light, from bondage to the rugged road that leads 
to a true freedom. The greater the oratory the 
greater the movement, the more prolonged it is, 
the more sustained it is, and no orators who ever 
lived moved a people so far along the road — amoved 



58 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

them so high in their climb — as those great gifted 
men who were orators, and who should stand as 
statuary in the greatest hall that ever was bnilt 
to represent the genins of man. I wish there were 
one representative — one. It would not be difficult ; 
they would not quarrel. There (pointing) is a 
poet whose songs in his life everyone profoundly 
disapproved of. There are bishops who did not 
belong to their particular Church, Catholic and 
Anglican. They have passed beyond the veil, 
where judgments are tolerant, where realities only 
count, and where Dafydd ap Gwilym will be 
greeted by Eowlands Llangeitho as a man who 
talked of the realities, of the things of God. 

You need not fear to put them here ; let us have 
one of them here, just one of the greatest men that 
ever thrilled a nation from death into life. That 
is my plea. Then there is the intellectual revival 
of Wales. Those colleges, those schools — they did 
not spring from the earth. There were great men 
who ploughed and harrowed the ground and sowed 
the seed, took out the weeds, and tended and shep- 
herded the growing institutions. Let us have one 
of those. 

I do not say the representation will be complete. 
It is difficult to make complete any representation 
of the great men of a nation. Great men provoke 
controversy. Dafydd ap Gwilym was buried for 
centuries in the dust of obloquy. It is but recently 
that he has risen from the dead. There are men 
I dare not mention, dead men, and, although dead, 
men I cannot mention in an assembly which takes 



THE GREAT MEN OF WALES 59 

diverse views about them — ^martyrs, social think- 
ers, like Robert Owen. They are men who fought 
and suffered for religious equality and freedom 
of conscience. It is difficult to bring men of that 
kind in, because they fight even though they be 
dead. Their battle is not over yet : they are still 
fighting. They are fighting for something that 
will only emerge into consent centuries hence. 
When that happens they will have their place in 
the National Valhalla, and a high place it will be. 
But let them work their way there. The great ora- 
tors of Wales, the great educational reformers of 
Wales, have surely ceased to be controversialists. 

Power of Little Nations. 

One or two words in conclusion. We are here 
to honour the great men of a little nation, such 
a small nation compared with the nations that are 
on the arena now. And yet little nations were 
never more alive, never more important than they 
are to-day in this conflict of gigantic Empires. If 
I were to pass a criticism upon the Allies I would 
say that while fighting for little nations they have 
never fully recognised and realised their value 
and their potential strength. They have never 
realised quite the value of Belgium, of Serbia, of 
Montenegro, of Bulgaria, of Greece, of Roumania. 
Wlien the time comes to write the story of this 
conflict it will be found that the cardinal blunder 
of the Allies was that they did not understand the 
power, the potential power, of the little nations. 
Britain is now at the full strength of an Imperial 



60 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

tide, and whilst the tide will get still higher, it 
will never submerge the joy of the little nation in 
its past, in its present, and in the future which 
it conceives for itself. The small nation is like 
a little stream. It does not cease to have a separ- 
ate existence even when its waters are merged in 
the great river. It still runs along the same val- 
ley, under the same name, draining the same 
watershed, and if it ceases to flow and to gather 
the waters of its own plain the great river would 
shrink, the great river would lose half its impetus 
and the purity of its waters. 

That great river is now in flood. A storm of 
righteous anger against a ghastly wrong has 
swept over the land, and the river is full to over- 
flowing. But I thank God for the fact that there 
are cataracts from the mountains of Wales swell- 
ing now the torrent of angry waters that will 
sweep away for ever the oppression which has 
menaced generations. 



EXTRACTS FROM SPEECHES 
AS PRIME MINISTER 



THE NEW GOVERNMENT. 

EXTRACTS FROM A SPEECH DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OP 
COMMON'S ON BECOMING PREMIER, DECEMBER 19th, 1916. 

I APPEAR before the House of Commons to-day, 
with the most terrible responsibility that can fall 
upon the shoulders of any living man, as the chief 
adviser of the Crown, in the most gigantic war in 
which the country has ever been engaged — a war 
upon the event of which its destiny depends. It is 
the greatest war ever waged. The burdens are 
the heaviest that have been cast upon this or any 
other country, and the issues which hang upon it 
are the gravest that have been attached to any 
conflict in which humanity has ever been involved. 

Allies^ Answer to the Peace Note. 

The responsibilities of the new Government 
have been suddenly accentuated by a declaration 
made by the German Chancellor, and I propose 
to deal with that at once. The statement made by 
him in the German Reichstag has been followed 
by a Note presented to us by the United States of 
America without any note or comment. The an- 
swer that will be given by the Government will be 
given in full accord with all our brave Allies. 

63 



64 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

Naturally, there has been an interchange of views, 
not upon the Note, because it only recently ar- 
rived, but upon the speech which propelled it, and 
inasmuch as the Note itself is practically only a 
reproduction, or certainly a paraphrase, of the 
speech, the subject-matter of the Note itself has 
been discussed informally between the Allies, and 
I am very glad to be able to state that we have 
each of us separately and independently arrived 
at identical conclusions. 

I am very glad that the first answer that was 
given to the statement of the German Chancellor 
was given by France and by Russia. They have 
the unquestionable right to give the first answer 
to such an invitation. The enemy is still on their 
soil; their sacrifices have been greater. The an- 
swer they have given has already appeared in all 
the papers, and I simply stand here to-day, on 
behalf of the Government, to give clear and defi- 
nite support to the statement which they have 
already made. Let us examine what the state- 
ment is, and examine it calmly. Any man, or set 
of men, who wantonly, or without sufficient cause, 
prolonged a terrible conflict like this would have 
on their soul a crime that oceans could not cleanse. 
Upon the other hand it is equally true that any 
man, or set of men, who out of a sense of weari- 
ness or despair abandoned the struggle without 
achieving the high purpose for which we had en- 
tered into it, would be guilty of the costliest act 
of poltroonery ever perpetrated by any states- 
man. I should like to quote the very well known 



THE NEW GOVERNMENT 65 

words of Abraham Lincoln under similar condi- 
tions : 

**We accepted this war for an object, and a 
worthy object, and the war will end when that 
object is attained. Under God I hope it will never 
end until that time." 

Are we likely to achieve that object by accepting 
the invitation of the German Chancellor? That is 
the only question we have to put to ourselves. 
There has been some talk about proposals of 
peace. What are the proposals 1 There are none. 
To enter into a conference at the invitation of 
Germany, proclaiming herself victorious, without 
any knowledge of the proposals she intends to 
make, is to put our heads into a noose with the 
rope end in the hands of Germany. 

t* Taken in once/' 

This country is not altogether without experi- 
ence in these matters. This is not the first time 
we have fought a great military despotism that 
was overshadowing Europe, and it will not be the 
first time we shall have helped to overthrow mili- 
tary despotism. We have an uncomfortable his- 
torical memory of these things, and we can recall 
that when one of the greatest of these despots 
had a purpose to serve in the working of his 
nefarious schemes, his favourite device was to 
appear in the garb of the angel of peace. He 
usually appeared under two conditions — ^first, 



ee THE GREAT CRUSADE 

when he wished for time to assimilate his con- 
quests, or to reorganise his forces for fresh con- 
quests; and, secondly, when his subjects showed 
symptoms of fatigue and war weariness. Invari- 
ably the appeal was made in the name of human- 
ity; and he demanded an end to bloodshed at 
which he professed himself to be horrified, but for 
which he himself was mainly responsible. Our 
ancestors were taken in once, and bitterly did they 
and Europe rue it. The time was devoted to reor- 
ganising his forces for a deadlier attack than ever 
upon the liberties of Europe. 

Bestitution, Reparation, Guarantees. 

Examples of that kind cause us to regard this 
Note with a considerable measure of reminiscent 
disquiet. We feel that we ought to know, before 
we can give favourable consideration to such an 
invitation, that Germany is prepared to accede to 
the only terms on which it is possible for peace to 
be obtained and maintained in Europe. What 
are those terms? They have been repeatedly 
stated by all the leading statesmen of the Allies. 
My right hon. friend has stated them repeatedly 
here and outside : 

*^ Restitution, reparation, guarantees against 
repetition, ' ' 

Let me repeat again — complete restitution, full 
reparation, effectual guarantees. Did the German 
Chancellor use a single phrase to indicate that he 



THE NEW GOVERNMENT 67 

was prepared to concede such terms? Was there 
a hint of restitution? Was there any suggestion 
of reparation? Was there any indication of any 
security for the future that this outrage on civilis- 
ation would not be again perpetrated at the first 
profitable opportunity? The very substance and 
style of the speech constitute a denial of peace on 
the only terms on which peace is possible. He is 
not even conscious now that Germany has com- 
mitted any offence against the rights of free na- 
tions. Listen to this from the Note : 

*^Not for an instant have they" (they being the 
Central Powers) *^ swerved from the conviction 
that the respect of rights of other nations is not 
in any degree incompatible with their own rights 
and legitimate interests." 

When did they discover that ? Where was the re- 
spect for the rights of other nations in Belgium 
and Serbia? Oh, that was self-defence ! Menaced, 
I suppose, by the overwhelming armies of Bel- 
gium, the Germans had been intimidated into in- 
vading that country, to the burning of Belgian 
cities and villages, to the massacring of thousands 
of inhabitants, old and young, to the carrying of 
the survivors into bondage; yea, and they were 
carrying them into slavery at the very moment 
when this precious Note was being written about 
the unswerving conviction as to the respect of the 
rights of other nations ! I suppose these outrages 
are the legitimate interest of Germany? We must 
know. That is not the mood of peace. If excuses 



68 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

of this kind for palpable crimes can be put for- 
ward two and a half years after the exposure by 
grim facts of the guarantee, is there, I ask in all 
solemnity, any guarantee that similar subterfuges 
will not be used in the future to overthrow any 
treaty of peace you may enter into with Prussian 
militarism? This Note and that speech prove that 
not yet have they learned the very alphabet of 
respect for the rights of others. Without repara- 
tion, peace is impossible. Are all these outrages 
against humanity on land and on sea to be liqui- 
dated by a few pious phrases about humanity? Is 
there to be no reckoning for them? Are we to 
grasp the hand that perpetrated these atrocities in 
friendship without any reparation being tendered 
or given ? I am told that we are to begin, Germany 
helping us, to exact reparation for all future vio- 
lence committed after the war. We have begun 
already. It has already cost us so much, and we 
must exact it now so as not to leave such a grim in- 
heritance to our children. Much as we all long for 
peace, deeply as we are horrified with war, this 
Note and the speech which propelled it afford us 
small encouragement and hope for an honourable 
and lasting compact. 

A Bad Neighbour. 

What hope is there given by that speech that 
the whole root and cause of this great bitterness, 
the arrogant spirit of the Prussian military caste, 
will not be as dominant as ever if we patch up a 



THE NEW GOVERNMENT 69 

peace now I Why, the very speech in which these 
peace suggestions are made resounds with the 
boasts of Prussian military triumphs of victory. 
It is a long paBan over the victory of Von Hinden- 
burg and his legions. This very appeal for peace 
is delivered ostentatiously from the triumphant 
chariot of Prussian militarism. 

We must keep a steadfast eye upon the purpose 
for which we entered the war, otherwise the great 
sacrifices we have been making will be all in vain. 
The German Note states that it was for the defence 
of their existence and the freedom of national 
development that the Central Powers were con- 
strained to take up arms. Such phrases cannot 
even deceive those who pen them. They are in- 
tended to delude the German nation into support- 
ing the designs of the Prussian military caste. 
Whoever wishes to put an end to their existence 
and the freedom of their national development? 
We welcomed their development as long as it was 
on the paths of peace. The greater their devel- 
opment upon that road, the more will all humanity 
be enriched by their efforts. That was not our 
design, and it is not our purpose now. The Allies 
entered this war to defend themselves against the 
aggression of the Prussian military domination, 
and having begun it, they must insist that it can 
only end with the most complete and effective 
guarantee against the possibility of that caste 
ever again disturbing the peace of Europe. Prus- 
sia, since she got into the hands of that caste, has 
been a bad neighbour, arrogant, threatening, bully- 



TO THE GREAT CRUSADE 

ing, litigious, shifting boundaries at her will, tak- 
ing one fair field after another from weaker neigh- 
bours, and adding them to her own domain, with 
her belt ostentatiously full of weapons of offence, 
and ready at a moment's notice to use them. She 
has always been an unpleasant, disturbing neigh- 
bour, and no wonder that the Prussians got thor- 
oughly on the nerves of Europe. There was no 
peace near where they dwelt. 

An Offence against the Law of Nations, 

It is difficult for those who were fortunate 
enough to live thousands of miles away to under- 
stand what it has meant to those who lived near 
their boundaries. Even here, with the protec- 
tion of the broad seas between us, we know what a 
disturbing factor the Prussians were with their 
constant naval menace, but even we can hardly 
realise what it has meant to France and to Russia. 
Several times within the lifetime of this genera- 
tion there were threats directed at them which 
presented the alternative of war or humiliation. 
There were many of us who hoped that internal 
influence in Germany would have been strong 
enough to check and ultimately to eliminate this 
hectoring. All our hopes proved illusory, and 
now that this great war has been forced by the 
Prussian military leaders, upon France, Russia, 
Italy, and ourselves, it would be folly, it would be 
cruel folly, not to see to it that this swashbuckling 
through the streets of Europe to the disturbance 



THE NEW GOVERNMENT 71 

of all harmless and peaceful citizens shall be dealt 
with now as an offence against the law of nations. 
The mere word that led Belgium to her own de- 
struction will not satisfy Europe any more. We 
all believed it. We all trusted it. It gave way at 
the first pressure of temptation, and Europe has 
been plunged into this vortex of blood. We will, 
therefore, wait until we hear what terms and guar- 
antees the German Government offer other than 
those, better than those, surer than those which 
she so lightly broke ; and meanwhile we shall put 
our trust in an unbroken Army rather than in 
a broken faith. 

No Speedy Victory. 

For the moment, I do not think it would be 
advisable for me to add anything upon this par- 
ticular invitation. A formal reply will be deliv- 
ered by the Allies in the course of the next few 
days. I shall therefore proceed with the other 
part of the task which I have in front of me. WTiat 
is the urgent task in front of the Government! To 
complete and make even more effective the mo- 
bilisation of all our national resources, so as to 
enable the nation to bear the strain, however pro- 
longed, and to march through to victory, however 
lengi;hy and however exhausting may be the jour- 
ney. It is a gigantic task, and let me give this 
word of warning : If there be any who have given 
their confidence to the new Administration in ex- 
pectation of a speedy victory, they will be doomed 



72 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

to disappointment. I am not going to paint a 
gloomy picture of the military situation — if I did, 
it would not be a true picture — ^but I must paint 
a stern picture, because that accurately represents 
the facts. I have always insisted on the nation 
being taught to realise the actual facts of this 
war. I have attached enormous importance to 
that at the risk of being characterised as a pessi- 
mist. I believe that a good many of our misun- 
derstandings have arisen from exaggerated views 
which have been taken about successes and from 
a disposition to treat as trifling real set-backs. To 
imagine that you can only get the support and the 
help, and the best help, of a strong people by con- 
cealing difficulties is to show a fundamental mis- 
conception. The British people possess as sweet 
a tooth as anybody, and they like pleasant things 
put on the table, but that is not the stuff that they 
have been brought up on. That is not what the 
British Empire has been nourished on. Britain 
has never shown at its best except when it was 
confronted with a real danger and understood it. 

TJie Worst Aspect. 

Let us for a moment look at the worst. The 
Roumanian blunder was an unfortunate one, but 
at worst it prolongs the war ; it does not alter the 
fundamental facts of the war. I cannot help hop- 
ing that it may even have a salutary effect in call- 
ing the attention of the Allies to obvious defects 
in their organisation, not merely the organisation 



THE NEW GOVERNMENT 78 

of each but the organisation of the whole, and if it 
does that and braces them up to fresh effort it may 
prove, bad as it is, a blessing. That is the worst. 
That has been a real set-back. It is the darkest 
cloud — and it is a cloud that appeared on a clear- 
ing horizon. We are doing our best to make it im- 
possible that that disaster should lead to worse. 
That is why we have taken in the last few days 
very strong action in Greece. We mean to take no 
risks there. We have decided to take definite and 
decisive action, and I think it has succeeded. We 
have decided also to recognise the agents of that 
great Greek statesman, M. Venizelos. 

The New Army. 

I wanted to clear out of the way what I regarded 
as the worst features in the military situation, 
but I should like to say one word about the lesson 
of the fighting on the Western front — ^not about 
the military strategy, but about the significance 
of the whole of that great struggle, one of the 
greatest struggles ever waged in the history of 
the world. It is full of encouragement and of 
hope. Just look at it! An absolutely new Army! 
The old had done its duty and spent itself in the 
achievement of that great task. This is a new 
Army. But a year ago it was ore in the earth of 
Britain, yea, and of Ireland. It became iron. It 
has passed through a fiery furnace, and the enemy 
knows that it is now fine steel. An absolutely new 
Army, new men, new officers taken from schools, 



74 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

from colleges, from counting-lioiises, never trained 
to war, never thought of war, many of them per- 
haps never handling a weapon of war, generals 
never given the opportunity of handling great 
masses of men. Some of us had seen the manoeu- 
vres. A division which is now set to attack a small 
village is more than our generals ever had the op- 
portunity of handling before the war. Compared 
with the great manoeuvres on the Continent, they 
were toy manoeuvres. And yet this New Army, 
new men, new officers, generals new to this kind 
of work, they have faced the greatest army in the 
world, the greatest army the world has ever seen, 
the best equipped and the best trained, and they 
have beaten them, beaten them, beaten them ! Bat- 
tle after battle, day after day, week after week! 
From the strongest entrenchments ever devised 
by human skill they have driven them out by val- 
our, by valour which is incredible when you read 
the story of it. 

There is something which gives you hope, which 
fills you with pride in the nation to which they be- 
long. It is a fact, and it is a fact full of signifi- 
cance for us — and for the foe. It is part of his 
reckoning as well. He has seen that Army grow 
and proved under his very eyes. A great French 
general said to me, **Your Army is a new army. 
It must learn, not merely generals, not merely of- 
ficers, but the men must learn not merely what to 
do, but how and when to do it.'' They are becom- 
ing veterans, and therefore, basing our confidence 
upon these facts, I am as convinced as I ever was 



THE NEW GOVERNMENT 75 

of ultimate victory if the nation proves as steady, 
as valorous, as ready to sacrifice and as ready to 
learn and to endure as that great Army of our 
sons in France. 

j^ ^ 4^ je. ^ 

TP TP TB* ^P TB" 



Controversy placed on one Side. 

I should like now to say a word or two about the 
Government itself, and, in doing so, I am anxious 
to avoid all issues that excite irritation or con- 
troversv or disunion. This is not a time for that. 
But it must not be assumed, if I do so, that I ac- 
cept as complete the accounts which have been 
given of the way in which the Government was 
formed. My attitude towards the policy of the 
late Administration, of which I was a member and 
for all whose deeds I am just as responsible as 
any one of them, has been given in letters and 
memoranda, and my reasons for leaving it have 
also been given in a letter. If it were necessary, 
I should on personal grounds have welcomed its 
publication, but I am convinced that controversies 
as to the past will not help us as to the future, and 
therefore, as far as I am concerned, I place them 
on one side and go on with what I regard as the 
business of the Government under these trying 
conditions. I should like to say something, first of 
all, as to the unusual character and composition 
of the Government as an executive body. 



76 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

Constitution of the New Government. 

The House has realised that there has been a 
separation between the functions of the Prime 
Minister and the Leader of the House. That was 
because we came to the conclusion that it was more 
than any one man, whatever his energy or physical 
strength might be, could do to undertake both 
functions in the middle of a great war. The task 
of the Leader of the House is a very anxious and 
absorbing task, even in war. I have not been able 
to attend the House very much myself during the 
last two or three years, but I have been here often 
enough to realise that the task of the Leader of the 
House of Commons is not a sinecure even in a war 
— friends of mine took care that it should not be 
so! 

So much for that point. Now there are three 
characteristics in the present Administration in 
which it may be said it has departed, perhaps, 
from precedent. First of all, there is the concen- 
tration of the Executive in a very few hands ; the 
second is the choosing of men of administrative 
and business capacity rather than men of Parlia- 
mentary experience, where we were unable to ob- 
tain both, for the headship of a great Depart- 
ment ; and the third is a franker and fuller recog- 
nition of the partnership of Labour in the Gov- 
ernment of this country. No Government that has 
ever been formed to rule this country has had such 
a number of men who all their lives have been as- 
sociated with labour and with the labour organisa- 



THE NEW GOVERNMENT 77 

tions of this country. We realised that it was im- 
possible to conduct war without getting the com- 
plete and unqualified support of Labour, and we 
were anxious to obtain their assistance and their 
counsel for the purpose of the conduct of the war. 

*' Peace Structures.^' 

The fact that this is a different kind of organ- 
isation from any that preceded it is not necessar- 
ily a criticism upon its predecessors. They were 
peace structures. They were organised for a dif- 
ferent purpose and a different condition of things. 
The kind of craft you have for river or canal traf- 
fic is not exactly the kind of vessel you construct 
for the high seas. I have no doubt that the old 
Cabinets — I am not referring to the last Cabinet, 
I am referring to the old system of Cabinets, 
where the heads of every Department were repre- 
sented inside the Cabinet — I have no doubt that 
the old Cabinets were better adapted for naviga- 
ting the Parliamentary river with its shoals and 
shifting sands, and perhaps for a cruise in home 
waters. But a Cabinet of twenty-three is rather 
top-heavy for a gale. I do not say that this par- 
ticular craft is best adapted for Parliamentary 
navigation, but I am convinced it is the best for 
the war, in which you want quick decision above 
everything. 

Look at the last two and a half years. I am not 
referring to what has happened in this country. 
Wlien I say these things I would rather the House 



78 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

of Commons looked at the war as a whole, and took 
the concerns of the Allies as a whole. We are 
all perfectly certain, and I shall have the assent 
of my right hon. friend (Mr. Asquith) in this, that 
the Allies have suffered disaster after disaster 
through tardiness of decision and action, very 
largely for reasons I shall give later on. I know 
in this I am in complete agreement with my right 
hon. friend. It is trne that in a multitude of coun- 
sellors there is wisdom. That was written for 
Oriental countries in peace times. You cannot run 
a war with a Sanhedrim. That is the meaning of 
the Cabinet of five, with one of its members doing 
sentry duty outside, maaning the walls, and de- 
fending the Council Chamber against attack while 
we are trying to do our work inside. 

^r ^v •Jl' ^p 

The Food Problem. 

The problem is a double one ; it is one of distri- 
bution and of production. In respect of both, we 
must call upon the people of this country to make 
real sacrifices, but it is essential, when we do so, 
that the sacrifices should be equal. The overcon- 
sumption by the affluent must not be allowed to 
create a shortage for the less well-to-do. I am 
sure we can depend upon men and women of all 
conditions to play the game. Any sort of conceal- 
ment hurts the nation. It hurts it when it is fight- 
ing for its life. Therefore, we must appeal to the 
nation as a whole, men and women, to assist us to 



THE NEW GOVERNMENT 79 

so distribute our resources that tliere shall be no 
man, woman, or child who will be suffering from 
hunger because someone else has been getting too 
much. 

When you come to production, every available 
square yard must be made to produce food. The 
labour available for tillage should not be turned 
to more ornamental purposes until the food neces- 
sities of the country have been adequately safe- 
guarded. The best use must be made of land and 
of labour to increase the food supplies of this 
country — com, potatoes, and all kinds of food 
products. All those who have the opportunity 
must feel it is their duty to the State to assist 
in producing and in contributing to the common 
stock, upon which everybody can draw. If they 
do this, we shall get food without any privation, 
without any want, everybody having plenty of 
the best and healthiest food. By that means and 
that means alone will the nation be able to carry 
through the war to that triumphal issue to which 
we are all looking forward. 

A National Lent. 

It means sacrifice. But what sacrifice ? Talk to 
a man who has returned from the horrors of the 
Somme, or who has been through the haunting 
wretchedness of a winter campaign, and you will 
know something of what those gallant men are en- 
during for their country. They are enduring 
much, they are hazarding all, whilst we are living 



80 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

in comfort and security at home. You cannot 
have absolute equality of sacrifice. In a war that 
is impossible, but you can have equal readiness 
to sacrifice from all. There are hundreds of thou- 
sands who have given their lives, there are mil- 
lions who have given up comfortable homes and 
exchanged them for a daily communion with death. 
Multitudes have given up those whom they love 
best. Let the nation as a whole place its comforts, 
its luxuries, its indulgences, its elegances on a na- 
tional altar consecrated by such sacrifices as these 
men have made. Let us proclaim during the war 
a national Lent. The nation will be better and 
stronger for it, mentally and morally as well as 
physically. It will strengthen its fibre, it will en- 
noble its spirit. Without it we shall not get the 
full benefit of this struggle. Our armies might 
drive the enemy out of the battered villages of 
France, across the devastated plains of Belgium; 
they might hurl them across the Rhine in battered 
disarray ; but unless the nation as a whole shoul- 
ders part of the burden of victory it will not profit 
by the triumph, for it is not what a nation gains, 
it is what a nation gives that makes it great. 

Ireland. 

I wish it were possible to remove the misunder- 
standing between Britain and Ireland which has 
for centuries been such a source of misery to the 
one and of embarrassment and weakness to the 
other. Apart from the general interest which I 



THE NEW GOVERNMENT 81 

have taken in it, I should consider that a war 
measure of the first importance. I should consider 
it a great victory for the Allied Forces, some- 
thing that would give strength to the armies of 
the Allies. I am convinced now that it is a mis- 
understanding, partly racial and partly religious. 
It is to the interest of both to have this misunder- 
standing removed, but there seems to have been 
some evil chance that frustrated every effort made 
for the achievement of better relations. I wish 
that that misunderstanding could be removed. 

I tried once. I did not succeed. The fault was 
not entirely on one side. I felt the whole time that 
we were moving in an atmosphere of nervous sus- 
picion and distrust, pervasive, universal, of every- 
thing and everybody. I was drenched with sus- 
picion of Irishmen by Englishmen and of Eng- 
lishmen by Irishmen, and, worst and most fatal 
of all, suspicion of Irishmen by Irishmen. It was 
a quagmire of distrust which clogged the foot- 
steps and made progress impossible. That is the 
real enemy of Ireland. If that could be slain, I 
believe that it would accomplish an act of recon- 
ciliation that would make Ireland greater and 
Britain greater and would make the United King- 
dom and the Empire greater than they ever were 
before. That is why I have always thought and 
said that the real solution of the Irish problem is 
largely one of a better atmosphere. I am speak- 
ing not merely for myself but for my colleagues 
when I say that we shall strive to produce that 
better feeling. We shall strive by every means to 



82 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

produce that atmosphere, and we ask men of all 
races and men of all creeds and faiths to help us, 
not to solve a political question, but to help us to 
do something that will be a real contribution to the 
winning of the war. 

The Dominions. 

I must also say one word about the Dominions. 
Ministers have repeatedly acknowledged the 
splendid assistance which the Dominions have 
given, of their own free will, to the old country in 
its championship of the cause of humanity. The 
great ideals of national fair play and justice ap- 
peal to the Dominions just as insistently as to us. 
They have recognised throughout that our fight 
is not a selfish one, and that it is not merely a Eu- 
ropean quarrel, but that there are great world 
issues involved in which their children are as con- 
cerned as our children. The new Administration 
are as full of gratitude as the old for the superb 
valour which our kinsmen have shown in so many 
stricken fields. But that is not why I introduce 
the subject now. I introduce the subject now be- 
cause I want to say that we feel the time has come 
when the Dominions ought to be more formally 
consulted as to the progress and course of the war, 
as to the steps that ought to be taken to secure 
victory, and as to the best methods of garnering in 
the fruits of their efforts as well as of our own. 
We propose, therefore, at an early date to sum- 
mon an Imperial Conference, to place the whole 



THE NEW GOVERNMENT 83 

position before the Dominions, and to take counsel 
with, them as to what further action they and we 
can take together in order to achieve an early and 
complete triumph for the ideals for which they 
and we have so superbly fought. 

^^A Common Front.^' 

As to our relations with the Allies — and this is 
the last topic I shall refer to — I ventured to say 
earlier in the year that there were two things we 
ought to seek as Allies : the first was unity of aim, 
and the other, unity of action. The first we have 
achieved. Never have Allies worked in better har- 
mony or more perfect accord than the Allies in 
this great struggle. There has been no friction 
and there has been no misunderstanding. But 
when I come to the question of unity of action I 
still think that there is a good deal left to be de- 
sired. I have only to refer to the incident of Eou- 
mania, and each man can spell out for himself 
what I mean. The enemy have two advantages — 
two supreme advantages. One is that they act on 
internal lines, and the other is that there is one 
great dominant power that practically directs the 
forces of all. We have neither of these advan- 
tages. We must, therefore, achieve the same end 
by other means. The advantages we possess are 
advantages which time improves. No one can say 
that we have made the best of that time. There 
has been a tardiness of decision and action. I 
forget who said about Necker that he was like a 



84 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

clock that was always too slow. There is a little 
of that in the great Alliance clock — Belgium, Ser- 
bia, Montenegro, Ronmania! 

Before we can take full advantage of the enor- 
mous resources at the command of the Allies, 
there must be some means of arriving at quicker 
and readier decisions, and of carrying them out. 
I believe that that can be done, and if we quicken 
our action as well as our decisions it will equalise 
the conditions more than we have succeeded in 
doing in the past. There must be more consulta- 
tion, more real consultation, between the men who 
matter in the direction of affairs. There must be 
less of the feeling that each country has its own 
front to look after. It has been carried so far 
that almost each Department might have a front 
of its own. The policy of a common front must 
be a reality. It is a reality on the other side. Aus- 
trian guns are helping German infantry, and Ger- 
man infantry are stiffening Austrian arms. The 
Turks are helping Germans and Austrians, and 
Bulgarians mix with all. There is an essential 
feeling that there is but one front, and I believe 
we have to get that more and more, instead of 
having overwhelming guns on one side and bare 
breasts, gallant breasts, on the other. It is essen- 
tial for the Allies not merely to realise that, but 
to carry it out in policy and action. I take this 
opportunity at the beginning of this new Admin- 
istration of emphasising that point, because I be- 
lieve it is an essential for great victory, and for 



THE NEW GOVERNMENT 85 

the curtailment of the period before victory ar- 
rives. 

The Issue Higher than Party, 

I end with one personal note, for which I hope 
the House will forgive me. May I say, and I say 
it in all sincerity, that it is one of the deepest re- 
grets of my life that I should part from the right 
hon. gentleman (Mr. Asquith). Some of his 
friends know how I strove to avert it. For years 
I served under the right hon. gentleman, and I 
am proud to say so. I never had a kinder or more 
indulgent chief. If there were any faults of tem- 
per, they were entirely mine, and I have no doubt I 
must have been difficult at times. No man had 
greater admiration for his brilliant intellectual 
attainments, and no man was happier to serve 
under him. For eight years we differed as men 
of such different temperaments must necessarily 
differ, but we never had a personal quarrel, in 
spite of serious differences in policy; and it was 
with deep, genuine grief that I felt it necessary to 
tender my resignation to my right hon. friend. 
But there are moments when personal and party 
considerations must sink into absolute insignifi- 
cance, and if in this War I have given scant heed 
to the call of party, — and so I have, although I 
have been as strong a party man as any in this 
House, — it is because I realised, from the moment 
the Prussian cannon hurled death at a peaceable 
and inoffensive little country, that a challenge had 



86 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

been sent to civilisation to decide an issue higher 
than party, deeper than party, wider than all par- 
ties — an issue upon the settlement of which will 
depend the fate of men in this world for genera- 
tions, when existing parties will have fallen like 
dead leaves on the highway. Those issues are the 
issues that I want to keep in front of the nation, 
so that we shall not falter or faint in our resolve. 
There is a time in every prolonged and fierce 
war, in the passion and rage of the conflict, when 
men forget the high purpose w^ith which they en- 
tered it. This is a struggle for international right, 
international honour, international good faith — 
the channel along which peace, honour, and good 
will must flow amongst men. The embankments 
laboriously built up by generations of men against 
barbarism have been broken, and had not the might 
of Britain passed into the breach, Europe would 
have been inundated with a flood of savagery and 
unbridled lust of power. The plain sense of fair 
play amongst nations, the growth of an interna- 
tional conscience, the protection of the weak 
against the strong by the stronger, the conscious- 
ness that justice has a more powerful backing in 
this world than greed, the knowledge that any out- 
rage upon fair dealing between nations, great or 
small, will meet with prompt and inevitable chas- 
tisement — these constitute the causeway along 
which humanity was progressing slowly to higher 
things. The triumph of Prussia would sweep it 
all away and leave mankind to struggle helpless 



THE NEW GOVERNMENT 87 

in the morass. That is why, since this war be- 
gan, I have known bnt one political aim. For that 
I have fought with a single eye. It is the rescue 
of mankind from the most overwhelming catas- 
trophe that has ever yet menaced its well-being. 



A SAFE INVESTMENT. 

EXTRACTS FROM A SPEECH DELIVERED AT THE GUILDHAIiL, 

AT A MEETING HELD TO LAUNCH THE VICTORY WAR LOAN, 

JANUARY 11th, 1917. 

The German Trap, 

The German Kaiser a few days ago sent a mes- 
sage to his people tliat the Allies had rejected his 
peace offer. He did so in order to drug those 
whom he can no longer dragoon. Where are those 
offers 1 We have asked for them. We have never 
seen them. We were not offered terms ; we were 
offered a trap baited with fair words. They 
tempted us once, bnt the lion has his eyes open 
now. We have rejected no terms that we have 
ever seen. Of course it would suit them to have 
peace at the present moment on their own terms. 
We all want peace ; but when we get it, it must be a 
real peace. The Allied Powers separately, and in 
council together, have come to the same conclu- 
sion. Knowing well what war means, knowing 
especially what this war means in suffering, in 
burdens, in horror, they have decided that even 
war is better than peace — peace at the Prussian 
price of domination over Europe. We made that 
clear in our reply to Germany; we made it still 
clearer in our reply to the United States of Amer- 
ica. Before we attempt to rebuild the temple of 

88 



A SAFE INVESTMENT 89 

peace we must see now that the foundations are 
solid. They were built before upon the shifting 
sands of Prussian faith; henceforth, when the 
time for rebuilding comes, it must be on the rook 
of vindicated justice. 

Determinaiion of the Allies. 

I have just returned from a Council of War of 
the four great Allied countries upon whose shoul- 
ders most of the burden of this terrible war falls. 
I cannot give you the conclusions : there might be 
useful information in them for the enemy. There 
were no delusions as to the magnitude of our task ; 
neither were there any doubts about the result. 
All felt that if victory were difficult, defeat was 
impossible. There was no flinching, no waver- 
ing, no faintheartedness, no infirmity of purpose. 
There was a grim resolution that at all costs we 
must achieve the high aim with which we accepted 
the challenge of the Prussian military caste and 
rid Europe and the world of its menace for ever. 
No country could have refused that challenge 
without loss of honour. No one. could have re- 
jected it without impairing national security. No 
one could have failed to take it up without forfeit- 
ing something which is of greater value to every 
free and self-respecting people than life itself. 

Spirit of the Borne Conference. 

These nations did not enter into the war light- 
heartedly. They did not embark upon this enter- 



90 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

prise without knowing what it really meant. They 
were not induced by the prospect of an easy 
victory. Take this country. The millions of our 
men who enrolled in the Army enlisted after the 
German victories of August, 1914, when they 
knew the accumulative and concentrated power of 
the German military machine. That is when they 
placed their lives at the disposal of their country. 
Wliat about other nations ? They knew what they 
were encountering, that they were fighting an 
organisation which had been perfected for genera- 
tions by the best brains of Prussia, perfected with 
one purpose — the subjugation of Europe. And 
yet they faced it. Why did they do it? I passed 
through hundreds of miles of the beautiful lands 
of France and of Italy, and as I did so I asked 
myself this question : Why did the peasants leave 
by the million these sunny vineyards and corn- 
fields in France — ^why did they quit these enchant- 
ing valleys in Italy, with their comfort and their 
security and their calm — ^in order to face the 
dreary and wild horrors of the battlefield? They 
did it for one purpose and one purpose only. They 
were not driven to the slaughter by kings. These 
are great democratic countries. No Government 
could have lasted twenty-four hours that had 
forced them into an abhorrent war. Of their own 
free will they embarked upon it, because they 
knew a fundamental issue had been raised which 
no country could have shirked without imperilling 
all that has been won in the centuries of the past 
and all that remains to be won in the ages of the 



A SAFE INVESTMENT 91 

future. That is why, as the war proceeds, and the 
German purpose becomes more manifest, the con- 
viction has become deeper in the minds of these 
people that they must break their way through 
to victory in order to save Europe from unspeak- 
able despotism. That was the spirit which ani- 
mated the Allied Conference at Rome last week. 



^^ Looking to Great Britain/' 

But I will tell you one thing that struck me, and 
strikes me more and more each time that I visit 
the Continent and attend these Conferences. That 
is the increasing extent to which the Allied peoples 
are looking to Great Britain. They are trusting 
to her rugged strength, to her great resources. 
To them she looks like a great tower in the deep. 
She is becoming more and more the hope of the 
oppressed and the despair of the oppressor, and 
I feel more and more confident that we shall not 
fail the people who put their trust in us. When 
that arrogant Prussian caste flung the signature 
of Britain to a treaty into the waste-paper basket 
as if it were of no account, they knew not the pride 
of the land they were treating with such insolent 
disdain. They know it now. Our soldiers and 
sailors have taught them to respect it. 

You have heard the eloquent account of the 
Chancellor of the Exchequer of the achievements 
of our soldiers. Our sailors are gallantly defend- 
ing the honour of our country on the high seas of 
the world. They have strangled the enemy's com- 



92 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

merce, and will continue to do so, in spite of all 
the piratical devices of the foe. In 1914 and 1915, 
for two years, a small, ill-equipped army held up 
the veterans of Prussia with the best equipment 
in Europe. In 1916 they hurled them back, and j 

delivered a blow from which they are reeling. In 
1917 the armies of Britain will be more formidable 
than ever in training, in efficiency, and in equip- 
ment, and you may depend upon it that if we give 
them the necessary support they will cleave a road 
to victory through all the dangers and perils of 
the next few months. 



A Bombardment of Cheques. 

But we must support them. They are worth it. 
Have you ever talked to a soldier who has come 
back from the front? There is not one of them 
who will not tell you how he is encouraged and 
sustained by hearing the roar of the guns behind 
him. This is what I want to see: I want to see 
cheques hurtling through the air, fired from the 
City of London, from every city, town, village, 
and hamlet throughout the land, fired straight into 
the entrenchments of the enemy. Every well-di- 
rected cheque, well loaded, properly primed, is a 
more formidable weapon of destruction than a 12- 
inch shell. It clears the path of the barbed wire 
entanglements for our gallant fellows to marck 
through. A big loan helps to ensure victory. A 
big loan will also shorten the war. It will help 
to save life; it will help to save the British Em- 



A SAFE INVESTMENT 93 

pire; it will help to save Europe; it will help to 
save civilisation. That is why we want the coun- 
try to rise to this occasion and show that the old 
spirit of Britain, represented by this great British 
meeting, is still as alive and as alert and as potent 
as ever. 

'^Extravagance Costs Blood." 

I want to appeal to the men at home, and to the 
women also, for they have done their part nobly. 
A man who has been Munitions Minister for 
twelve months must feel a debt of gratitude to the 
women for what they have done. They have 
helped to win, and without them we should not do 
it. I want to make a special appeal, or, rather, to 
enforce the special appeal of the Chancellor of the 
Exchequer. Let no money be squandered in lux- 
ury and indulgence which can be put into the fight. 
Every ounce counts in this fight. Do not waste it. 
Do not throw it away. Put it there to help the 
valour of our brave young boys. Back them up. 
Let us contribute to assist them. Have greater 
pride in them than in costly garments. They in 
their turn will feel proud of their mothers to-day, 
and their pride in them will grow in years to come 
when the best garments will have rotted. It will 
glisten and glitter. It will improve with the years. 
They can put it on with old age and say, ^^This 
is something I contributed in the Great War." 

Men and women of England, Scotland, Wales, 
and Ireland, the first charge — ^the first charge — « 
upon all your surplus money over your needs for 



94 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

yourselves and your children should be to help 
those gallant young men of ours who have ten- 
dered their lives for the cause of humanity. The 
more we get the surer the victory. The more we 
get the shorter the war. The more we get the 
less it will cost in treasure, and the greatest treas- 
ure of all, brave blood. The more we give the 
more will the nation gain. You will enrich it by 
your contributions — ^by your sacrifices. Extrava- 
gance — I want to bring this home to every man 
and woman throughout these islands — extrava- 
gance during the war costs blood — costs blood! 
And what blood! Valiant blood — ^the blood of 
heroes. It would be worth millions to save one of 
them. A big loan will save myriads of them. 
Help them not merely to win; help them to come 
home to shout for the victory which they have 
won! 



it 



EquipTneni for the Allies.' ' 



It means better equipment for our troops. It 
means better equipment for the Allies as well, and 
this — and I say it now for the fiftieth if not the 
hundredth time — is a war of equipment. Why 
are the Germans pressing back our gallant Allies 
in Roumanial It is not that they are better fight- 
ers. They are certainly not. The Roumanian 
peasant has proved himself to be one of the dough- 
tiest fighters in the field when he has a chance, 
poor fellow, and he never had much. As for the 
Russian, the way in which with bare breast he 
has fought for two years and a half, with inferior 



A SAFE INVESTMENT 95 

guns, insufficient rifles, inadequate supplies of am- 
munition, is one of the world's tales of heroism. 
Let us help to equip them, and there will be an- 
other story to tell soon. 



A Safe Investment. 



yy 



That is why I am glad to follow the Chancellor 
of the Exchequer in the appeal which he has made 
to the patriotism of our race — ^but with true Scot- 
tish instinct he put the appeal to prudence first! 
He laid it down as a good foundation for patriot- 
ism and reserved that for his peroration. I shall 
reverse the order, belonging to a less canny race. 
I want to say it is a good investment. After all, 
the old country is the best investment in the world. 
It was a sound concern before the war ; it will be 
sounder and safer than ever after the war, and 
especially safer. I do not know the nation that 
will care to touch it after the war. They had 
forgotten what we were like, but it will take them 
a long time to forget this lesson. 

Have you been watching what has been going 
on? Before the war we had a good many short- 
comings in our business, our commerce, and our 
industry. The war is setting them all right in the 
most marvellous way. You ask great business 
men what is going on in the factories throughout 
Great Britain and Ireland. Old machinery 
scrapped, the newest and the best set up; slip- 
shod, wasteful methods also scrapped, hampering 
customs discontinued; millions brought into the 



96 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

labour market to help to produce who before were 
merely consumers. I do not know what the Na- 
tional Debt will be at the end of this war, but I 
will make this prediction. Whatever it is, what 
is added in real assets to the real riches of the 
nation will be infinitely greater than any debt that 
we shall ever acquire. The resources of the na- 
tion in every direction will have been developed, 
directed, perfected, the nation itself disciplined, 
braced up, quickened. We have become a more 
alert people. We have thrown oif useless tissues. 
We are a nation that has been taking exercise. We 
are a different people. 



(( 



The Path of Gold/' 



I will tell you another difference. The Prussian 
menace was a running mortgage which detracted 
from the value of our national securitv. No- 
^ body knew what it meant. We know pretty well 
now. You could not tell whether it meant a mort- 
gage of hundreds of millions, or thousands of mil- 
lions, and I know you could not tell that it would 
not mean ruin. That mortgage will be cleared off 
for ever, and there will be a better security, a bet- 
ter, sounder, safer security, at a better rate of in- 
terest. The world will then be able, when the war 
is over, to attend to its business. There will be 
no war or rumours of war to disturb and to dis- 
tract it. We can build up; we can reconstruct; 
we can till and cultivate and enrich; and the bur- 
den and terror and waste of war will have gone. 



A SAFE INVESTMENT 97 

The best security for peace will be that nations 
will band themselves together to punish the first 
peacebreaker. In the armouries of Europe every 
weapon will be a sword of justice. In the govern- 
ment of men every army will be the constabulary 
of peace. 

There were men who hoped to see this achieved 
in the ways of peace. We were disappointed. It 
was ordained that we should not reach that golden 
era except along a path which itself was paved 
with gold, yea, and cemented with valiant blood. 
There are myriads who have given the latter, and 
there are myriads more ready for the sacrifice if 
their country needs it. It is for us to contribute 
the former. Let no man and no woman, in this 
crisis of their nation's fate, through indolence, 
greed, avarice, or selfishness, fail. And if they do 
their part, then, when the time comes for the tri- 
umphal march through the darkness and the ter- 
ror of night into the bright dawn of the morning 
of the new age, they will each feel that they have 
their share in it. 



SACRIFICE AT HOME. 

EXTRACTS FROM C^PEECH ON THE COUNTRY'S FOOD SUPPLIES, 
DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OP COMMONS, FEBRUARY 23rD, 

1917. 

If all this programme is carried out ; if all those 
who oan help us with production do help; if all 
those who are called upon to suffer restrictions 
and limitations will suffer without complaint, then 
honestly I say we can face the worst that the 
enemy can do — ^the worst! And that is what we 
ought to be prepared for. If we are not, — ^if it 
were conceivable that the nation was not prepared 
to do and endure all these things, — then I say 
with all solemnity I do not know the body of hon- 
ourable men who would undertake for one hour to 
be responsible for the conduct of this terrible war. 
It is essential. There are millions of gallant 
young men in France, in Salonika, in Egypt, in 
Mesopotamia, facing torture, terror, death. They 
are the flower of our race. Unless the nation at 
home is prepared to take its share of the sacrifice, 
theirs would be in vain, and I say it would be a 
crime — a black crime — for any Government to ask 
them to risk their brave lives in the coming con- 
flict if they knew that the nation behind them were 
faint-hearted or selfish. Their sacrifice would be 
thrown away. We have no right to ask it. For 

98 



SACRIFICE AT HOME 99 

that reason I have come down, after long delibera- 
tion and thought, careful and searching, on be- 
half of the Government of this country to submit 
to the House of Commons, and through the House 
of Commons to the nation, proposals which I hope 
the Commons will approve, and which I hope the 
nation will carry out with an unflinching and an 
ungrudging heart. 



'* SOWING THE WINTER WHEAT." 

SPEECH DELIVERED AT CARNARVON, TO A MEETING OP CON- 
STITUENTS, AFTER BECOMING PRIME MINISTER, FEBRUARY 

3rd, 1917. 

This is a strictly non-party gathering, and I 
wish to emphasise that aspect of it, because, what- 
ever our views may be on the political questions 
which divide us in times of peace, there can be but 
one opinion about the desirability of our sinking 
all our differences in order to unite for the para- 
mount national duty of carrying through to vic- 
tory the great cause which this country has cham- 
pioned with its blood. 

The National Government. 

Two great men have spoken this week from non- 
party platforms— one of them the eminent states- 
man who has taken charge in this trying hour of 
the important office of Secretary of State for For- 
eign Affairs, and whose brilliant memorandum 
attached to the Allied reply to America is one of 
the most striking documents of the war; the other 
the distinguished leader of the Liberal Party — 
both of them appealing to the nation to sink dif- 
ferences and disputes, party and personal, and to 
unite for the common great end that the nation is 

100 



"SOWING THE WINTER WHEAT" 101 

putting its strength into achieving. I have the 
honour of being called to the leadership of the 
national Government — a non-party Government, 
none the less a Government in which three parties 
are represented, and in which I am perfectly cer- 
tain it is a matter of regret for every member of 
the three parties that the fourth has not been able 
to join. And although we can recognise no party 
during the war, the people of this country have the 
party habit so thoroughly ingrained in their na- 
ture that even in order to attain national unity it 
was desirable that the three parties should be rep- 
resented in any national Government, and they 
are fully and substantially represented. 

Labour's Part. 

I am glad that, although some of my late col- 
leagues, for reasons which I have no right to can- 
vass, have not joined the present Government, 
there are just as many Liberals in the present Ad- 
ministration as in the old. There are Unionists 
and there are Labour men, and I specially con- 
gratulate the nation on the fact that Labour has 
finally and firmly decided to abandon its attitude 
of criticism and censure of Governments, as it had 
already abandoned long ago its attitude of blind 
adhesion to any party, and that it has decided to 
take its share in the responsibility of governing 
the Empire. A distinguished contribution it has 
already made. The statesmanship displayed by 
Mr. Henderson during the period in which he has 



102 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

been a member of an Imperial Government has 
shown the value of the adhesion of Labour in the 
task of administering the affairs of this Empire, 
and I am glad that in the present Government, for 
the first time, Labour has a seat in the inner coun- 
cil that settles and decides the affairs of the coun- 
try in the greatest emergency which has ever 
befallen it. It has twice as many representatives 
as it ever had in any Government before. I con- 
gratulate the country on the fact that all parties 
in the State — with the exception of the Irish 
Party, whose absence from our counsels we all 
regret — ^have united for the purpose of directing 
the concerns of the Empire in its hour of trial. 

Treading Gladstone's Path. 

The Liberal Party has special interest in the 
causes for which we are struggling in this great 
war. The principle that the rights of nations, 
however small, are as sacred as the rights of the 
biggest empire — that is the principle which I was 
taught as a lad among those mountains which sur- 
round us. The principle that international right 
is the basis of international peace — that is an- 
other. The doctrine that the Turk is incapable 
of governing any other race justly, and even his 
own race well — that is another which I was taught. 
I remember very well as a boy having to walk 
some miles to the nearest railway station in order 
to buy Mr. Gladstone's famous speech on the ex- 
pelling of the Turk, bag and baggage, from Eu- 



"SOWING THE WINTER WHEAT" 103 

rope for his misrule and his massacres ; and I also 
remember the sensation that was created by the 
famous speech of Mr. Gladstone on the Belgian 
question, when he said: **If the Belgian people 
desire on their own account to join France or any- 
other country, I, for one, will be no party to tak- 
ing up arms to prevent it ; but that the Belgians, 
whether they would or not, should go plumb down 
the maw of another country, is another matter. 
The accomplishment of such a crime as this im- 
plies is coming near to the extinction of public 
right in Europe, and I do not think we could look 
on while the sacrifice of freedom and independ- 
ence was in course of consummation.'* The path 
which that great statesman hewed out in his great- 
est days is the one I am humbly treading in this 
great war. We are fighting for all that is best and 
highest in the principles of his great rival — the 
solidarity of the Empire, recognition of its in- 
fluence and its power as essential instruments in 
the progress of the human race. We are fighting 
for all that is greatest and best in the career of 
these two great men. 

''A Fair Chance.' ' 

I recognise that the new Government is in some 
respects an experiment. In its size it is rather 
small, but you must not imagine that very small 
men or small Cabinets are the least efficient. In 
its constitution, in its composition, for the first 
time, at any rate on a great scale, success in busi- 



104* THE GREAT CRUSADE 

ness has been placed on the same footing as suc- 
cess in politics as a claim to high office. I am 
going to ask for these men that they should have 
fair play. They have been treated in some quar- 
ters already as if they were mere fussers and 
flounderers. They are men of great experience, 
men who have shown they possess the wisdom and 
judgment and the ability to make a success in their 
own spheres. Give them a fair chance. They 
have to straighten out tangles and make up many 
accumulated deficiencies. They have arrears to 
clear up. A vast amount of work has to be done, 
and is being done. That work will be continued. 
There was some bad work that will be scrapped. 
Where there was slack work, that will be ener- 
gised, and where there was no work it will be initi- 
ated. They are not asking for a trial of two and 
a half years ; they have not yet had two months ; 
they have hardly had a month ; they must have a 
fair chance to look round, to plan, to consider, 
and to act. 

Exmnple of Ministry of Mu%itions. 

I have had a good deal of experience of what 
men of this kind can do, the great business men 
of this country, when you call upon them. The 
Mayor was good enough to refer to my work as 
Minister of Munitions. The only credit I take is 
this— that I gathered together as fine a body of 
men of able experience as ever came together in 
any Government Department, as ever existed in 
this or any other land. I do not pretend I did 



"SOWING THE WINTER WHEAT" 105 

the work. They did it. I encouraged them. I 
stood by them, and now and again I scolded them; 
but we all worked hard. I will tell you what I 
want to say about it, and what I am saying now 
is not without its relevance, and you can each 
apply it to everything read or heard. They had 
not been there a few weeks dealing with an un- 
doubted shortage, an undoubted deficiency, to- 
gether with lost opportunities, before we heard 
censure and criticising. Was there ever such a 
muddle? It was chaos, confusion, failure. Club 
comers, corridors, lobbies, dining-rooms, above all 
drawing-rooms, sizzled with whispers of the mess 
these great business men had made of things. 
They took no notice of it, and, for a wonder, nor 
did I. They knew they were going to confound 
all these things, not by speech, but by accomplish- 
ment. They knew they were not going to fail the 
British Army at the appointed hour. They knew 
the condition of things — ^when you had on the lines 
of communication (there is no harm in telling it 
now) and behind the front just equal to one-third 
of your present daily output; when the British 
Army had to stand in the trenches battered, ham- 
mered, shelled, without an answer, with no sup- 
port. It is one of the most heroic tales in the his- 
tory of that grand infantry. For a year they 
stood it without flinching. They never ran away. 
And these men worked and worked and worked 
because they thought the men were worth it, and 
the men stood there because they knew there were 
men behind prepared to help them. 



106 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

What happened ? The great battle of the Somme 
came. These men had mobilised the whole of the 
engineering resonrces of the country. Old work- 
shops grew to life, new workshops were set np, — 
you could see them north and south, east and west, 
wherever you travelled — old machinery made the 
best of, new machinery manufactured here and 
also ordered in America — -machinery that will 
revolutionise industry after the war. New indus- 
tries were set up where before the war we had 
been dependent entirely on Germany; and we are 
not going to drop them after the war. And then, 
when the time came, there was an overflowing 
supply of shot and shell; batteries of the finest 
artillery on the battlefield of Europe to-day ; guns, 
howitzers, machine-guns, shells of every calibre, 
great and small, a surplus even to assist our 
Allies, and after four months of incessant bom- 
bardment, night and day, there were more guns 
and there was more ammunition than on the first 
day the battle began. And yet that was accom- 
plished by a Department which was decried and 
condemned as a failure within a few weeks after 
it had been set up, by the same men who are be- 
ginning clandestinely to do the same thing with 
the new Government. 

**The Work of the Nation/' 

I am only giving you that as a warning not to 
rush into premature criticism. When men are 
ploughing and sowing it is no use saying ^* Where 



"SOWING THE WINTER WHEAT" 107 

is the harvest I" It is enough for me to know 
that they are good ploughmen. They know how 
to handle the plough, and although they will now 
and again come up against a hidden boulder they 
will do their work, and I have very little doubt in 
a short time I shall be able to show to you what 
great things they have accomplished. They have 
already saved hundreds of thousands of tons of 
our shipping, invaluable in the face of the diffi- 
culties we have to encounter. They have arranged 
for the construction of hundreds of thousands of 
new tonnage; they have saved locomotives, 
wagons, and rails; they have set up a great new 
organisation for the production of food with 
branches throughout the land; they are working, 
and I think effectively, at the urgent problem of 
dealing with the piratical brutality of Germany on 
the seas. When necessary, in every department 
of Government, there is an intensification, a quick- 
ening, a new energy, a new system and method. 
But they must be helped ; they are there not to do 
the work of any party, nor of any Government, 
and certainly not their cwn. They are there to do 
the work of l^e nation, which is your work and 
their own, and I am here to ask you to help them. 
Their task is the most complicated, difficult, and 
dangerous ever entrusted to any body of men. 

''The Balkan Muddle." 

I have never been a believer in concealing the 
realities of the situation from my fellow-country- 



108 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

men. You cannot get the best out of them until 
they face the facts. I have never had any doubt 
as to ultimate victory ; but neither have I had any 
doubt that before you reach it there are many 
broad and turbulent rivers to cross, and the na- 
tion — and by the nation I do not mean the Gov- 
ernment, I mean the men and women that make 
up the nation, — must help us to bridge those 
rivers. I am not going to give a summary of the 
military situation. There is much in it which, of 
course, must necessarily cause anxiety. There is 
the condition of the Balkans, where, through cir- 
cumstances I do not wish to discuss, one advan- 
tage after another has been thrown away. Any 
man who looks at the map of Europe and knows 
the circumstances must realise how important the 
Balkans must necessarily be in a survey of the 
whole field. It is no one's fault in particular. 
You cannot say that is the fault of this country 
or of that country, of this Government or of that 
Government. All the four countries have un- 
doubtedly been to blame for the present condition 
of things in the Balkans ; the improvident lack of 
vision, the lack of imagination, the lack of promp- 
titude, the lack of decision, the delay, the hesita- 
tion — they have all combined to produce this Bal- 
kan muddle, which is the only part of the whole 
battlefield which for the moment need cause any 
anxiety to the Allies. On the Western front — 
both Western fronts, France and Italy, — ^we have 
driven the enemy back in battle after battle. 



"SOWING THE WINTER WHEAT" 109 

''The Black Flag.'' 

When you come to the sea there is much for 
us to glory in as a nation. After two years and a 
half our strength is unbroken, and not merely 
this country but all the countries which are in 
alliance with it owe a deej) debt of gratitude to 
the skill and gallantry of our great Navy which 
holds the seas. But here again I must call atten- 
tion to the great and to the growing menace of 
Germany's piratical devices. I want the nation 
to realise what this most recent move of Germany 
really portends. It is nothing new in essence ; it is 
a development, it is an advance along the road to 
complete barbarism; it is casting otf the last gar- 
ment of civilisation; it is the Goth in his naked 
savagery. What more can he do? He must 
stand revealed now even to the most indulgent 
neutral. He had already sunk 570 neutral ships, 
I think 430 by submarines, that is deliberately, 
some of the crews being lost. Now he means to 
sink them all without warning. He will respect 
henceforth no flag except the black flag. I beg his 
pardon; he has had the graciousness to intimate 
as a favour to the great Eepublic of the West 
that he will allow one American passenger ship a 
week to ply to one British port provided it bears 
the mark of a Dutch paddle steamer. Was there 
ever such insolence? It amounts to insanity. 

We can overcome it, but only if the nation is 
prepared to back the Government with the whole 
of its resources. I don't want anyone to go away 



110 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

from this meeting, or to read what is said at this 
meeting, and draw any inference from that ex- 
cept one. The peril is great, but it can be sur- 
mounted by the grit, the energy, the courage, the 
determination of a great people like the people of 
these lands. But the nation must support the Gov- 
ernment, in money, in labour, in land, in the sacri- 
fice of conveniences, nay, of comforts; then we 
shall pull through in our deadly struggle with 
these desperadoes. 

*^The Frussian Baal." 

Let me make clear to you what the enemy is 
doing. I want the nation thoroughly to under- 
stand what it all means. He is doing it because 
he is getting desperate. The Prussian thoroughly 
understands that the resources at his disposal can- 
not command complete victory on land. I want 
you fully to appreciate what that means for him 
and for us. I am very glad to read what Mr. 
Asquith said yesterday or the day before about 
* * peace without victory. ' ' He was absolutely right. 
What would it mean? It would mean not a peace, 
but a rest — a rest for him and for the Central 
Powers, a time to recuperate from their exhausted 
condition. I can tell exactly what would happen 
without pretending to any gifts of prophecy. The 
military leaders of Germany would say, **We 
made a few mistakes at the beginning of the war, 
otherwise we should have rushed these nations. 
Next time we will repair those errors.'' They 



"SOWING THE WINTER WHEAT" 111 

would also say, ^*We were done by the blockade; 
we were short of food and material. Next time we 
will accumulate a sufficient quantity of food and 
raw material so that the German Empire shall 
not have its life crushed out by a blockade. '* But 
if we destroy the prestige of the Prussian military 
idol, that cannot be set up again. They could pre- 
pare swarms of submarines and aircraft in order 
to get over the blockade, but if they lose confi- 
dence in their army, if that is broken, it cannot be 
restored. The Germans put their trust in it in a 
way you can hardly conceive, as we all put our 
trust in our great Navy. But with them it is 
more than that ; it is something that is ever press- 
ing, it enters into the whole life of the nation, its 
arrogance struts through the streets. The Ger- 
man people fear it, and to-day are hating it. But 
they rely upon it. It terrorises them, but they 
put up with it so long as it intimidates their neigh- 
bours. It bullies them, but they bear with it so 
long as it enables them to bully Europe. But 
though they bow before it they worship it as a 
god. 

We have to demonstrate that the Prussian Baal 
is a false god, that its pretensions are a sham, 
that its priests are a cruel fraud. We must show 
them that he has brought famine to their land; 
that he could not protect himself, let alone them. 
Once you do that they will tear down his altars 
and strike his images into the dust. It is essen- 
tial that this nation, with its great Allies, should 
destroy the delusion of the Prussian military 



112 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

power. Yon will then have in Enrope one great 
emancipated land from the Ural to the Atlantic 
shores. 



<( 



Eegardless," 



Bnt we mnst have time. What is the German 
calculation? I will tell you what it is. They know 
perfectly well that, given time, the great armies 
of the Allies will break up their military machine 
with its terrors, but they know that if they de- 
stroy our transports at sea our armies will lan- 
guish for lack of support and sustenance, and our 
people will die of hunger; we cannot keep up our 
armies in the East and the West, and the barba- 
rian hordes of Turkey will have our Eastern Em- 
pire at their mercy. You must not merely see that 
this does not happen. You must demonstrate to 
them that it cannot happen. You must make it 
clear to them that they cannot do it. You will 
get peace in 1917 if the enemy knows that by hold- 
ing out until 1918 he will be worse and not better 
off. That is what he is working for, and I want 
you to understand it — the destruction of all access 
to our shores. For that purpose he is defying 
every law, human and Divine. You saw what the 
German Chancellor said in his speech which was 
reported either to-day or yesterday. He called it 
the ^* U-boat campaign regardless." So It is; re- 
gardless of the good will of the world, regard- 
less of honour, regardless of fair play, regardless 
of humanity. They care for nothing, and he said 
so, as long as they can win; and we must see 



"SOWING THE WINTER WHEAT'' 113 

by our own efforts that that policy, which de- 
grades Europe, the success of which would put 
civilisation back untold centuries, cannot and will 
not triumph* 



The Imperial Conference. 

We want to utilise far more than we have done 
in the past the great resources of the Empire. 
The contribution of the Dominions and of India 
has been splendid. The assistance they have given 
us in the most trying hours of this campaign has 
been incalculable in its value. But, after all, it is 
an Empire of 300 millions of population, and it 
can do far more, and it will do it. It is purely a 
question of indicating what can be done, and with 
that object in view a meeting of the Imperial 
Conference will be held in the course of the next 
few weeks in London, at which the Dominions and 
India will be represented. It will be the first Im- 
perial Cabinet ever held. After all, it is right 
when they are making sacrifices that they should 
be consulted as to the use which is to be made of 
their endeavours as well as of our own. The ques- 
tion of the conquered German territories will be 
considered, among others. It is unthinkable that 
their disposition after the war should be deter- 
mined without consulting the Dominions, since 
they have shed their blood in acquiring them. It 
is also unthinkable that the question should be 
settled without the Dominions taking their share 



114 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

of the responsibility of considering this issue, not 
as a separate one, but as part of the settlement — 
the whole settlement — of the great world-prob- 
lems which mnst inevitably follow the end of this 
world-war. Their presence at this Conference, 
or rather Cabinet, is essential in order that they 
should share with us the anxious burden of con- 
sidering not merely a part, however important, 
but all the factors in a cause for which their sons 
so freely sacrificed their lives. 

'^We Must Endure More.'^ 

But I want to get nearer home, and I want to 
tell you what you can do. We can do nothing un- 
less the nation is prepared to back us up, and if 
you will allow me I am going to speak quite 
frankly. I certainly should not be worthy of the 
position which I hold unless I talked quite openly, 
quite fearlessly, to the nation. The nation has 
done great things ; it can do more. No great ends 
have ever been achieved in this world without 
great sacrifices, and they must not be confined to 
one class or one section of the community. We 
must not choose able-bodied men between eighteen 
and forty-one who do not happen to be indispen- 
sable to a business and say the sacrifice is theirs 
— ^we must not choose them to bear the burden of 
sacrifice and the rest go free. We must all share 
in it. There is no belligerent country in Europe 
on either side where the general public have suf- 
fered less than in Great Britain. There are ex- 



"SOWING THE WINTER WHEAT" 115 

ceptions, but they are small. There are certain 
professions which have suffered severely from the 
war, and let me say this for them: they are just 
the professions from which you never hear a 
growl; they are the most patriotic. But with 
these exceptions the general community has not 
suffered in this country anything which is com- 
parable to what it has suffered in other belligerent 
lands. 

To win the war we must endure more. The 
sacrifice has been delegated too much to the men 
in the trenches ; the privations have been endured 
by the men in the trenches. Nobly, heroically, 
they faced them, and we must all be prepared 
to give up something for the victory of our native 
land and the cause for which it stands. And 
may I say to those whom I have heard complain- 
ing about little inconveniences and little discom- 
forts that the first thing we have to give up is to 
give up grumbling. The vast majority are only 
too anxious to help, and the grumblers, fortu- 
nately, are few. What people want to know is 
how they can help, and it is the business of the 
Government to indicate how they can. The first 
thing is: Out with your ready cash, or even 
with unready cash. It is indispensable in order 
to carry on the war. I have not merely been in two 
spending Departments, but I have been in the De- 
partment which provides the money, so I know the 
problem from both sides. You must have silver 
bullets or golden bullets. Those who cannot af- 
ford the gold, let them produce the silver. 



116 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

''Don't Let Them Down!" 

There is great fighting in front of ns. Our gal- 
lant soldiers will do their duty. There are men 
every day and every night who are going down 
to the sea in ships to defend onr shores and the 
access to our shores, and our gallant sailors will 
not finish, whatever danger the deep may conceal 
for them. But I do beg for our sailors and our 
soldiers, don't let them down in the hour of bat- 
tle. Support them with all we can and all we have. 
A big loan will shorten the war ; a big number of 
subscribers will shorten it further. If you can- 
not give much, give what you can. It will swell 
the number of subscribers, it will encourage the 
Army, it will discourage the foe. Let the Army 
at the front know that at home there is an army 
behind the Army; and every man who has any- 
thing to give, I ask him to enlist in that army in 
order to do his share and to contribute his help 
to the winning of the war. 



'Enlist Time. 



>y 



There must be no hanging back, there must be 
no loitering, there must be no lingering. Time 
is a hesitating and perplexed neutral. He has 
not yet decided on which side he is going to swing 
his terrible scythe. For the moment that scythe 
is striking both sides with terrible havoc. The 
hour will come when it will be swung finally 



"SOWING THE WINTER WHEAT" 117 

on one side or the other. Time is the deadliest of 
all the neutral powers. Let ns see that we enlist 
him among our Allies. The only way to win time 
is not to lose time. You must not lose time in the 
council chamber; you must not lose time in the 
departments which carry out the decrees of the 
council; you must not lose time in the field, in the 
factory, or in the workshop. Whoever tarries 
when he ought to be active — whether it is a states- 
man, a soldier, an official, a farmer, a worker, a 
rich man with his money — is simply helping the 
enemy to secure the aid of the most powerful fac- 
tor in this war — time. Act and act in time. That 
is our appeal to you. 



^^ A New Country/^ 

In conclusion I would sum up the appeal which 
I am making to you in the Carnarvon Boroughs, 
men and women, and through you to the men and 
women of this land. Do these things for the sake 
of your country during the war. Do them for 
the sake of your country after the war. When the 
smoke of this great conflict has been dissolved in 
the atmosphere we breathe, there will reappear 
a new Britain. It will be the old country still, 
but it will be a new country. Its commerce will 
be new, its trade will be new, its industries will 
be new. There will be new conditions of life and 
of toil, for capital and for labour alike, and there 
will be new relations between both of them and 
for ever. But there will be new ideas, there will 



118 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

be a new outlook, there will be a new character in 
the land. The men and women of this country will 
be burnt into fine building material for the new 
Britain in the fiery kilns of the war. It will not 
merely be the millions of men who, please God! 
will come back from the battlefield to enjoy the 
victory which they have won by their bravery. 
A finer foundation I would not want for the new 
country; but it will not be merely that. The 
Britain that is to be will depend also upon what 
will be done now by the many more millions who 
remain at home. 

There are rare epochs in the history of the 
world when in a few raging years the character, 
the destiny, of the whole race is determined for 
unknown ages. This is one. The winter wheat 
is being sown. It is better, it is surer, it is more 
bountiful in its harvest than when it is sown in 
the soft springtime. There are many storms to 
pass through, there are many frosts to endure, be- 
fore the land brings forth its green promise. But 
let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due sea- 
son we shall reap if we faint not. 



THE ENTRY OF AMERICA INTO THE WAR. 

SPEECH DELIVERED AT THE AMERICAN LUNCHEON CLUB 

(savoy hotel), APRIL 12th, 1917. 

I AM in the happy position, I think, of being the 
first British Minister of the Crown who, speak- 
ing on behalf of the people of this country, can 
saint e the American nation as comrades in arms. 
I am glad. I am prond. I am glad not merely be- 
cause of the stupendous resources which this 
great nation can bring to the succour of the Al- 
liance, but I rejoice as a Democrat that the ad- 
vent of the United States into this war gives the 
final stamp and seal to the character of the con- 
flict as a struggle against military autocracy 
throughout the world. 

^' A Fight for Human Liberty." 

That was the note that rang through the great 
deliverance of President Wilson. It was echoed 
in your resounding words to-day. Sir. The 
United States of America have a noble tradi- 
tion, never broken, of having never engaged in a 
war except for liberty, and this is the greatest 
struggle for liberty they have ever embarked 
upon. I am not at all surprised, when one recol- 

119 



120 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

lects the wars of the past, that America took its 
time to make up its mind about the character of 
this struggle. In Europe most of the great wars 
of the past were waged for dynastic aggrandise- 
ments and for conquest. No wonder that when 
this great war started there were some elements 
of suspicion still lurking in the minds of the peo- 
ple of the United States of America. There were 
many who thought, perhaps, that kings were at 
their old tricks, and although they saw the gal- 
lant Republic of France fighting, some of them 
perhaps, regarded France as the poor victim of 
conspiracy and of monarchical swashbucklers. 
The fact that the United States of America has 
made up its mind finally makes it abundantly 
clear to the world that this is no struggle of that 
character, but a great fight for human liberty. 

The Prussian Military Caste. 

They naturally did not know at first what we 
had endured in Europe for years from this mili- 
tary caste in Prussia. It never reached as far 
as the United States of America. Prussia is not 
a democracy, but the Kaiser promises it will be 
a democracy after the war. I think he is right. 
But Prussia not merely was not a democracy; 
Prussia was not a State. Prussia was an army. 
It had great industries, highly developed. It had 
a great educational system. It had its universi- 
ties. It developed its sciences. But all these 
were subordinate to the one great predominant 



AMERICA AND THE WAR 121 

purpose of an all-conquering army which was to 
intimidate the world. The army was the spear- 
point of Prussia; the rest was merely the shaft. 

That is what we had to deal with in these old 
countries. It got on the nerves of Europe. "We 
knew what it all meant. The Prussian Army in 
recent times had waged three wars — all for con- 
quest. And the incessant tramping of its legions 
through the streets of Prussia and on the parade 
grounds of Prussia had got into the Prussian 
head. The Kaiser, when he witnessed it on a 
grand scale in his reviews, got drunk with the 
sound of it. He delivered the law to the world, as 
though Potsdam were a new Sinai and he were 
uttering the law from the thundercloud. But 
make no mistake; Europe was uneasy. Europe 
was half intimidated; Europe was anxious; 
Europe was apprehensive. We knew the whole 
time what it meant. What we did not know was 
the moment it would come. This is the menace, 
this is the oppression, from which Europe has 
suffered for fifty years. It paralysed the benef- 
icent activities of all States, which ought to have 
been devoted to, and concentrated upon, the well- 
being of their people. They had to think about 
this menace, which was there constantly as a 
cloud, ready to burst over the land. 

Take France. No one can tell except the 
Frenchman what they endured from this tyranny, 
patiently, gallantly, with dignity, until the hour 
of deliverance came. The best energies in demo- 
cratic France have been devoted to defence 



122 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

against the impending terror. France was like 
a nation which had put up its right arm to ward 
off a blow, and it could not use the whole of its 
strength for the great things France was capable 
of. That great, bold, imaginative, fertile mind, 
which would otherwise have been cleaving new 
paths of progress, was paralysed. This was the 
state of things we had to encounter. 

''The Hindenhurg Line." 

The most characteristic of all Prussian institu- 
tions is the Hindenburg line. What is the Hinden- 
hurg line! The Hindenburg line is a line drawn 
in the territories of other people with a warning 
that the inhabitants of those territories shall not 
cross it at the peril of their lives. That line has 
been drawn in Europe for fifty years in many 
lands. You recollect what happened some years 
ago in France when the French Foreign Minister 
was practically driven out of office by Prussian 
interference. Why? What had he done? He 
had done nothing that the Minister of an inde- 
pendent State had not the most absolute right 
to do. He crossed that imaginary line drawn in 
French territory by Prussian despotism, and he 
had to leave. 

Europe, after enduring this for generations, 
made up its mind at last that the Hindenburg 
line must be drawn along the legitimate frontiers 
of Germany herself. It has been an undoubted 
fight for the emancipation of Europe and the 



AMERICA AND THE WAR 123 

emancipation of the world. It was hard at first 
for the people of America quite to appreciate 
that. Germany had not interfered to the same ex- 
tent with their freedom, if at all. But at last she 
has endured the same experience to which Europe 
has been subjected. Americans were told they 
were not to be allowed to cross and recross the At- 
lantic except at their peril. American ships were 
sunk without warning. American subjects were 
drowned with hardly an apology, in fact as a mat- 
ter of German right. At first America could 
hardly believe it. They could not think it pos- 
sible that any sane people could behave in that - 
manner. And they tolerated it once, they tole- 
rated it twice, until at last it became clear that 
the Germans really meant it. The Hindenburg 
line was drawn along the shores of America, and 
Americans were told they must not cross it. 
America said, ^^What is this?'' and was told that 
this was a line beyond which they must not go. 
Then America acted, and acted promptly. Amer- 
ica said, **The place for that line is not the At- 
lantic, but on the Rhine, and we mean to help 
you to roll it up. ' ' And they have started. 

The Inspiration of Freedom, 

There are two great facts which clinch the 
argument that this is a great struggle for free- 
dom. The first is the fact that America has come 
in. She could not have done otherwise. The 
second is the Russian Revolution. When France 



124 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

in the eighteenth century sent her soldiers to 
America to fight for the freedom and independ- 
ence of that land France also was an autocracy. 
But when the Frenchmen were in America their 
aim was freedom, their atmosphere was freedom, 
and their inspiration was freedom^ They ac- 
quired a taste for freedom and they took it home, 
and France became free. That is the story of 
Russia. Russia engaged in this great war for the 
freedom of Serbia, of Montenegro, and Bulgaria. 
Russians have fought for the freedom of Europe, 
and they wanted to make their own country free. 
They have done it. The Russian Revolution is 
not merely the outcome of the struggle for free- 
dom. It is a proof of its character as a struggle 
for liberty. And if the Russian people realise, 
as there is evidence they are doing, that national 
discipline is not incompatible with national free- 
dom, and know that national discipline is essen- 
tial to the security of national freedom, they will 
indeed become a free people. 

I have been asking myself the question. Why 
is it that Germany deliberately in the third year 
of the war provoked America to this declaration, 
and to this action? Deliberately! Yes; reso- 
lutely ! It has been suggested that the reason was 
that there were certain elements in American life 
which Germany was under the impression would 
make it impossible for the United States to de- 
clare war. That I can hardly believe ; but the an- 
swer has been afforded by General Hindenburg 
himself in the very remarkable interview which 



AMERICA AND THE WAR 125 

appears, I think, this morning in the Press. He 
depended clearly on one of two things — that the 
submarine campaign would have destroyed inter- 
national shipping to such an extent that England 
would have been put out of business before Amer- 
ica was ready. According to his computation, 
America would not be ready for twelve months. 
He does not know America. Then alternatively, 
and when America was ready at the end of twelve 
months with her army, she would have no ships 
to transport that army to the field of battle. In 
Hindenburg's words, ** America carries no 
weight." I suppose he means that she has no 
ships to carry it in ! 



t( 



Ships!'' 



"Well, it is not wise always to assume, even when 
the German General Staff has miscalculated, that 
they have had no ground for their calculation; 
and therefore it behooves the whole of the Allies 
— Britain and America in particular — to see that 
that reckoning of Von Hindenburg is as false as 
the one he made about the famous line which we 
have already broken. The road to victory, the 
guarantee of victory, the absolute assurance of 
victory, is to be found in one word — ships ! In a 
second word — ships! In a third word — ships! 
I see that America, with that quickness of com- 
prehension which characterises your nation, fully 
realises that, and to-day I observe that they have 
already made an arrangement to build a thousand 



126 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

I 3,000-tonners for the Atlantic. I think that the 
i German military advisers must already begin to 
i realise that this is another of the tragic miscalcu- 
lations which is going to lead them to disaster and 
to ruin. 

! America to Study Our Blunders. 

But you will pardon me for just emphasising 
that we are a slow people in these islands. Yes, 
but sure! Slowly, blunderingly we go; but we 
get there. You get there sooner, and that is why 
I am glad to see you in. But may I say we have 
been in this business for three years. We have 
made blunders; we generally do; we have tried 
every blunder. In golfing phraseology we have 
gone through every bunker; but we have a good 
niblick stroke, and we are now right out on the 
course. May I respectfully suggest that it is 
worth America's while to study our blunders so 
as to begin just where we are now — not where 
we were three years ago. That is an advantage 
in war time, and if taken to-day may lead to as- 
sured victory, but taken to-morrow may barely 
avert disaster. All the Allies have discovered 
that. It was a new country for us all. It was 
trackless, mapless; we had to go by instinct, but 
we found the way. I am glad that you are send- 
ing your great naval and military experts here 
just to exchange experiences with men who have 
been through all the dreary, anxious course of 
the last three years. 



AMERICA AND THE WAR 127 

'^Whai America Com Do.'' 

America has helped us even to win the battle 
of Arras — this great battle. Those guns which 
destroyed the German trenches and shattered the 
barbed wire — I remember with some friends of 
mine I see here discussing the matter and arrang- 
ing to order from America the machines to make 
those guns. Not all ! You did your share ; it was 
only a share, but it is a glorious one. America 
has been making guns, making munitions, making 
machinery to prepare both, supplying us with 
steel, and she has all that organisation, that 
wonderful facility, adaptability, and resourceful- 
ness of the great people who inhabit that great 
continent. Ah ! it was a bad day for military au- 
tocracy in Prussia when she challenged the great 
Republic of the West. "We know what America 
can do; and we also know that now she is in it 
she will do it. She will wage an effective and suc- 
cessful war. 

There is something more important. She will 
ensure a beneficent peace. I am the last man in 
the world — ^knowing for three years what our 
difficulties have been, what our anxieties have 
been, what our fears have been — to deny that the 
succour which is given us from America is some- 
thing to rejoice in, and rejoice greatly in; but 
I do not mind telling you that I rejoice even more 
in the knowledge that America is going to win her 
right to be at the conference table when the terms 
of peace are being discussed. That conference 



128 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

will settle the destiny of nations, the course of 
human life, for God knows how many ages. It 
would have been a tragedy for mankind if Amer- 
ica had not been there, and there with all the in- 
fluence, and the power, and the right which she 
has now won by flinging herself into this great 
struggle. 

''The Peace of Democracy J' 

I can see peace coming now — not a peace which 
would be a beginning of war, not a peace which 
would be an endless preparation for strife and 
bloodshed, but a real peace. The world is an old 
world which has never had peace. It has been 
rocking, swaying, like the ocean, and Europe — 
poor Europe — has always lived under the menace 
of the sword. When this war began two-thirds 
of Europe was under autocratic rule. It is the 
other way about now, and democracy means peace. 
The democracy of France did not want war. The 
democracy of Italy hesitated long before enter- 
ing the war. The democracy of this country 
shrank from it and shuddered, and would never 
have entered that cauldron if it had not been for 
the invasion of Belgium. Democracy sought 
peace, strove for peace, and if Prussia had been 
a democracy there would have been no war. 

But strange things have happened in this war, 
and stranger things are to come — and they are 
coming rapidly. There are times in history when 
the world spins so leisurely along its destined 
course that it seems for centuries to be at a stand- 



AMERICA AND THE WAR 129 

still. There are also times when it rushes along 
at a giddy pace, covering the track of centuries 
in a year. These are the times we are living in 
now. Six weeks ago Russia was an autocracy. 
She is now one of the most advanced democracies 
in the world. To-day we are waging the most de- 
vastating war that the world has even seen. To- 
morrow — not perhaps a distant to-morrow — war 
may be abolished for ever from the categories of 
human crimes. This may be something like that 
fierce outburst of winter which we are now wit- 
nessing before the complete triumph of spring. 

''With the Dawn/' 

It was written of those gallant men who won 
that victory on Monday — ^men from Canada, 
from Australia, and from this old country which 
has proved that in spite of its age it is not de- 
crepit — it was written of those gallant men that 
they attacked with the dawn. Fitting work for 
the dawn to drive out of forty miles of French 
soil those miscreants who had defiled it for nearly 
three years. They attacked with the dawn. It 
is a significant phrase. The breaking up of the 
dark rule of the Turk, which for centuries has 
clouded the sunniest lands in the world, the free- 
ing of Russia from the o]3pression which has 
covered it like a cloud for so long, the great 
declaration of President Wilson, coming with the 
might of the great nation he represents in the 
struggle for liberty, are heralds of the dawn. 



130 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

^^They attacked with the dawn'^; and those men 
are marching forward in the full radiance of that 
dawn, and soon Frenchmen and Americans, 
British, Italians, and Russians, yea, Serbians, 
Belgians, Montenegrins, and Rumanians, will 
march into the full light of perfect day. 



THE WAR AND THE EMPIRE. 

EXTRACTS FROM A SPEECH DEIjIVERED AT THE GUILDHALL, 

ON BEING PRESENTED WITH THE FREEDOM OP THE CITY OP 

LONDON, APRIL 27tH, 1917. 

I THANK the City of London, not merely for this 
great personal distinction which has been con- 
ferred upon me, but as the head of the Govern- 
ment in the greatest trial which a nation can pass 
through. I thank the City of London for its serv- 
ices to the nation during that period. I have had 
three years* experience in various offices in this 
war. I have always received the readiest and 
most patriotic support from the City. Not merely 
in money, but in men, have they contributed to the 
help of the country in this great war. You, Sir, 
referred in your kind and flattering observations 
to what occurred at the beginning of this war, 
when there was something in the nature of a 
financial panic, and when the whole complicated 
and apparently flimsy structure of credit seemed 
to have been shattered by one blow. We shall 
never forget those days. They were days of 
panic. There was something for the moment like 
consternation, stupefaction. But British credit 
survived that blow, in spite of many predictions 
to the contrary. And the City of London took an 

131 



132 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

honourable and leading part in the promotion 
of that last loan, which was the most remarkable 
financial exploit that has ever been witnessed in 
the history of the world. 



The Turning of the Tide, 

You referred also to the part I took in organis- 
ing the resources of the country for the equip- 
ment of our armies in the field with the neces- 
sary material to give them, at any rate, a fair 
chance in the fight. You remember the dark and 
dreary time when our gallant fellows in shattered 
trenches had night and day to endure the mockery 
of the slaughtering tongues of the German can- 
non. And how they stood it ! The way in which 
the British infantry stood the guns of Napoleon 
for one day is one of the epics of military history. 
Their descendants stood greater guns for days 
and nights and weeks and months, and never 
flinched. It is one of the greatest stories in the 
world, how they were never broken, a^id it is only 
those who met them and talked with them who 
can realise what they endured. Our gratitude 
goes for ever to them. And, let me say here, our 
gratitude ought to go to that brave little man who 
led them through all those trying months under 
very great difficulties, and was never beaten, and 
never lost heart — ^Lord French. 

When I took the job in hand of organising the 
resources of this country, I did it in order to give 
those brave men a real chance in the fight. And, 



THE WAR AND THE EMPIRE 133 

thank God, they have got it. The tide has changed, 
thanks to the efforts put forth by the mannf ao- 
turers of the country, the workmen of the country, 
and, let ns not forget, by the women — the hun- 
dreds of thousands of women who flocked to the 
factories and asked what they could do to help 
their gallant kinsmen in the field. They have 
done it, and the story now is a very different one. 

There is no better test of victory than guns and 
prisoners. Before June, 1915, we had lost 84 
guns and a very considerable number of prisoners, 
and we had captured, so far as I can recollect, not 
one gun. Since that date we have not lost one, 
and we have captured 400, and when you come to 
the tale of prisoners, we have captured ten at 
least for every one. The tide has changed; our 
victory is becoming increasingly assured. Take, 
if you like, the difference between the Battle of 
the Somme and the last great battle, around Yimy 
Ridge. The Vimy Ridge had cost the French 
enormous losses. In spite of untold gallantry, 
they had only secured part of it. Entirely owing 
to the fact that we have superior equipment — 
and I have always said that better guns and more 
shells meant saving life, and this is the proof of it 
— we captured the whole of the Vimy Ridge, with 
about 200 guns, at something like one-fifth of what 
it cost the French Army in the days of inferior 
equipment to attack it and fail to capture it. 

Take the first 18 days of the Battle of the 
Somme and the first 18 days of this battle. I have 
just had these figures. In the first 18 days of the 



134! THE GREAT CRUSADE 

Battle of the Somme we captured 11,000 prisoners 
and 54 guns. In the first 18 days of the Battle of 
Arras we captured 18,000 prisoners and 230 guns. 
We have gained four times as much ground, and 
our losses are exactly one-half. 

I will tell you what that means. It means not 
merely ultimate victory, but it means that victory 
is going to be won at less cost, and that the chances 
are growing as our equipment is improving. The 
Germans know it, and that is the explanation of 
the despair which has driven them to black piracy 
on the high seas. That is the next job we have to 
face, and we mean to do it. They mean to make 
the sea absolutely impassable for any craft. It is 
essential to victory for them that they should do 
it. It is equally essential for victory for us that 
they should fail. That is the proposition with 
which we are confronted. 

"What is our minimum problem? To feed a pop- 
ulation of forty-five millions in a country which is 
not self-supporting, to provide the necessary raw 
material and food to equip and feed our armies, 
and to keep the sea free for the transport of troops 
and their equipment for ourselves and our Allies 
— all that has to be done against a swarm of pi- 
rates, moving unseen under the trackless seas. 
Do not let us minimise the problem. Unless we 
thoroughly appreciate its gravity we shall not 
put our strength, our full strength, into dealing 
with it. It is the greatest attack ever directed 
against our existence. 



THE WAR AND THE EMPIRE 135 

The Future of Politics. 

The future of this country depends upon how 
much the politicians have learnt. I have heard of 
politicians who think that when the war is over 
the same old machinery will be set up, the same 
old methods applied, and the same old notions ad- 
hered to. People who do not know politicians 
think of them as wild revolutionaries. The wildest 
revolutionary is the most reactionary person in 
the world. 

There used to be two parties in this country. 
Before the war there were five, absolutely inde- 
pendent of each other. The people are discover- 
ing that no party had a monopoly of wisdom, 
that not even the five parties together were the 
sole repositories of political sagacity, and that 
there are more things in heaven and earth than 
were dreamt of in the philosophy of any one, two, 
or five of these parties. That is one of the revela- 
tions which we have seen in the lurid fires of this 
war. We have been driven to do things in this 
war that no party ever thought of. There is no 
party that does not admit that these things were 
absolutely necessary to save the country. 

When the war is over and reconstruction begins, 
I hope and trust and pray that we are not going 
to dive into the pigeon-holes of any party for 
dust-laden precedents and programmes. Let us 
think out the best methods for ourselves in the 
face of seaching facts we knew not of before the 
war. We are a thousand years older and wiser. 



136 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

The experience of generations has been crowded 
into jnst a few winters, and we should indeed be 
unworthy of the great destiny to which Provi- 
dence has called this generation of men if we 
threw all that away for the sake of any formulas 
that were framed before the Flood. There is no 
part of the whole sphere of statesmanship where 
there is a greater need for us to revise our ideas 
than in our attitude towards that great common- 
wealth of nations which is known as the British 
Empire. In the past we treated it as an abstrac- 
tion — a glorious abstraction, but an abstraction. 
The war has shown us, all of us, that the British 
Empire is a fact, nay, a factor, the most potent 
factor to-day in the struggle for human liberty. 

We sent a hundred thousand men to France in 
August, 1914. They turned the tide of history. 
The Dominions and the great Empire of India 
have contributed one million men. That has trans- 
formed our ideas as to the reality and the benef- 
icence of the British Empire. The world cannot 
afford to let it dissolve. But the choice must be 
between immediate concentration and ultimate dis- 
solution. We can never let things remain where 
they were. It may be said that the shadowy char- 
acter of the relations between us and the Domin- 
ions and the great territories of the East have 
produced this real cohesion. That was all very 
well before they made great sacrifices. They have 
established claims now to a real partnership. 
Henceforth effective consultation must be the only 
basis of co-operation. If our action brings them 



THE WAR AND THE EMPIRE 137 

into trouble, as it has, costing them myriads of 
precious lives, they must henceforth be consulted 
beforehand. 

Methods must be carefully considered. The 
whirl of a great war is not the best time for think- 
ing out perhaps new Constitutions, but our Coun- 
cils of Empire must at any rate be a reality. The 
Imperial War Cabinet, the first ever held, has 
been a demonstration of the value of these coun- 
cils. Our colleagues from the Dominions and from 
the great Empire of India have not taken part, 
believe me, in a formal conference to carry resolu- 
tions. They have had a real share in our coun- 
cils and in our decisions, and they have been a 
great source of strength and wisdom to our de- 
liberations. They have come there with fresh 
minds. They have viewed this world-conflict from, 
as it were, different peaks. Minds running the 
same course for a long time are apt to get rutty, 
and the weightier the minds the deeper the ruts. 
You require fresh minds to lift the cart out of 
those worn furrows, and we have had them. We 
have had war decisions of the most far-reaching- 
character, in which our colleagues from beyond 
the seas have assisted us. These great problems 
in regard to submarines, shipping, and food, as 
well as our military decisions, have all come for 
review at councils in which they have taken part. 

But we must do more. I feel that this experi- 
ment must be incorporated in the fabric of the Em- 
pire. We have been taught by the war the real 
value of the Empire as a world-force, and one of 



138 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

the first duties of statesmanship in the future will 
be to take all measures which are necessary to aid 
in the development of the stupendous resources 
of the Empire. That ought to be our special 
care, our special pride, as it undoubtedly would 
be our special security. We want to develop the 
lands under the Flag. If fifty years ago we had 
directed our minds and our power and our in- 
fluence to that end, you would now have had 
double the population you have got in these 
Dominions, by diverting the tide of emigration to 
British Dominions instead of other lands, and you 
would have attracted the virile populations of 
Europe in addition to that. 

In the future we have decided that it is the 
business of statesmanship in Great Britain, as 
well as in the lands beyond the seas, to knit 
the Empire together in closer bonds of interest, of 
trade, of commerce, of business, and of general 
intercourse in affairs. 

We have given grave consideration to this prob- 
lem, and have decided that in order to develop 
these enormous territories in future it is neces- 
sary that exceptional encouragement should be 
given to the products of each part of the Empire^ 
We believe that a system of preference can be es- 
tablished which will not involve the imposition of 
burdens upon food. We believe that it can be 
done without that, and, of course, with food at 
its scarcest and at its dearest, this is not the time 
to talk about putting additional burdens on food. 
But for purposes of preference that would not be 



THE WAR AND THE EMPIRE 139 

essential. You can secure that by other means, 
and more particularly by taking measures which 
other lands have taken for improving the com- 
munications between one part of their dominions 
and another. By these means the products of 
one country inside this great Imperial Common- 
wealth can be brought more freely, readily, and 
economically to the markets of the others. 

This great Empire has infinite resources in 
wealth, in minerals, in food products, in timber, 
and in every commodity needful for man, and it 
is obviously to the advantage, not merely of the 
particular countries where these products come 
from, but of every other part of the Empire, in- 
cluding the United Kingdom, that these commodi- 
ties should be developed to the utmost. It en- 
riches, it strengthens, and it binds together the 
Empire as a whole. 

•^ w ?r TP ^ 

Therefore I say to Britain, she has faced the 
problems of war with a courage that has amazed 
the world ; she must face the problems of peace in 
the same great spirit. 



KESTATEMENT OF THE CAUSES AND AIMS OF 

THE WAE. 

EXTRACTS FROM A SPEECH DELIVERED AT GLASGOW, ON BE- 
ING PRESENTED WITH THE FREEDOM OP THAT CITY, JUNE 

29th, 1917. 

It is a satisfaction for Britain in these ter- 
rible times that no share of the responsibility for 
these events rests on her. She is not the Jonah 
in this storm. The part taken by our country in 
this conflict, in its origin and in its conduct, has 
been as honourable and chivalrous as any part 
ever taken in any country in any operation. We 
might imagine from declarations which were made 
by the Germans, aye, and even by a few people 
in this country who are constantly referring to 
*^our German comrades,^' that this terrible war 
was wantonly and wickedly provoked by England 
— never Scotland, never Wales, and never Ireland 
— ^wantonly provoked by England to increase her 
possessions and to destroy the influence, the 
power, and the prosperity of a dangerous rival. 
There never was a more foolish travesty of the 
actual facts. It happened three years ago, or less, 
but there have been so many bewildering events 
crowded into those intervening years that some 
people might have forgotten, perhaps, some of the 

140 



CAUSES AND AIMS OF THE WAR 141 

essential facts, and it is essential that we should 
now and again restate them, not merely to refute 
the calumniators of our native land, but in order 
to sustain the hearts of her people by the un- 
swerving conviction that no part of the guilt of 
this terrible bloodshed rests upon their conscience. 

Britain the Last to Enter the War. 

"What are the main facts? There were six 
countries which entered the war at the beginning. 
Britain was the last, not the first. Before she 
entered the war Britain made every effort to 
avoid it, begged, supplicated, and entreated that 
there should be no conflict. I was a member of 
the Cabinet at the time, and I remember the 
earnest endeavours we made to persuade Ger- 
many and Austria not to precipitate Europe into 
this welter of blood. We begged them to summon 
a European conference. Had that conference 
met, arguments against provoking such a ca- 
tastrophe were so overwhelming that there would 
never have been a war. Germany knew that, so 
she rejected the conference. Although Austria 
was prepared to accept it, she suddenly declared 
war, and yet we are the people who wantonly pro- 
voked this war in order to attack Germany! We 
begged Germany not to attack Belgium, and pro- 
duced a treaty signed by the King of Prussia, as 
well as the King of England, pledging himself to 
protect Belgium against an invader, and we said, 
^^If you invade Belgium we shall have no altema- 



142 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

tive but to defend it." The enemy invaded Bel- 
gium, and now they say, *^Why, forsooth, you, 
England, provoked this war. " It is not quite the 
story of the wolf and the lamb. I will tell you 
why: because Germany expected to find a lamb 
and found a lion. So much for our responsibility 
for war, and it is necessary that the facts should 
be stated and restated, because we want to carry 
on this war with a pure, clear conscience to the 
end. 

The Military Situation. 

But you will ask me what progress are we mak- 
ing with the war, and I mean to tell you my view 
of that. I am steeped every day — morning, noon, 
and night — in the perplexities and difficulties and 
the anxieties of this grim business, but all the 
same I feel confident. The difficulties are there to 
be overcome, the anxieties to be faced, the disap- 
pointments to be persevered through. What is 
the present military position? No doubt, startling 
events in Russia modified the military situation 
this year temporarily to our disadvantage, but 
permanently for the better. What has happened 
recently on both the Western fronts shows what 
could have been accomplished this year, if all the 
Allied forces had been ready to bring an all-round 
pressure to bear. In training, in experience, in 
equipment, our Army is infinitely better than it 
has ever been. The Lord Provost has referred 
to the munitions work of this country. The finest 
collection of trench-pounding machinery which any 



CAUSES AND AIMS OF THE WAR 143 

army has ever seen is now in the possession of 
the British forces. You have only to look at what 
happened at the Vimy and Messines Eidges. 
Fortifications which had defined the power of the 
British and French armies for two or three years 
were swept away by onr great attack, and by the 
gallant onslaught of our Allies. The valour of 
the French troops against the dense hordes of 
German troops must have impressed all as a con- 
spicuous example of what that great nation is ca- 
pable of ; and there are the brilliant achievements 
of our Italian comrades, who with dash, courage, 
and skill storm great Alpine heights in the teeth 
of those legions of Austria. 

The Russian Situation. 

We have demonstrated the superiority of the 
Allied armies in all these great conflicts, but no 
doubt for the moment the difficulty we have to deal 
with is that the internal distractions in Russia 
have robbed the Russian Army of the power to 
put forth the whole of its strength. Broken di- 
visions from the West have been taken to the 
East and fresh divisions fram the East have been 
brought back to the West, and the same thing ap- 
plies to the German and the Austrian artillery. 
The Russian Revolution, beneficent as it un- 
doubtedly is and undoubtedly great as will be its 
results both this year and even more hereafter, 
has had the effect of postponing a complete vic- 
tory. Revolution is a fever brought about by the 



144 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

constant and reckless disregard of the laws of 
health in the government of a country. While 
it is on, the strength of a country is diverted to 
the internal conflict which is raging in its blood, 
and it is naturally not so effective for external use 
during that period. The patient takes some time 
to recover his normal temperature, but when he 
begins to recover, if his constitution is good — and 
the Russian nation has as fine a constitution as 
any nation ever possessed — then he will regain it 
straight at a bound, and be mightier and more 
formidable than ever. That is the case in Russia, 
Although this distraction has had the effect of 
postponing complete victory, it has made victory 
more sure than ever, more complete than ever. 
What is more important, it has made surer than 
ever the quality of the victory we shall gain. 

What do I mean when I say it has ensured a 
better quality of victory? I will tell you, because 
that is important. There were many of us whose 
hearts were filled with gloomy anxiety when we 
contemplated all the prospects of a great peace 
conference summoned to settle the future of 
democracy with one of the most powerful partners 
at that table the most reactionary autocracy in 
the world. I remember very well discussing the 
very point with one of the greatest of French 
statesmen, and he had great misgivings about 
what would happen. Now Russia is unshackled, 
Russia is free, and the representatives of Russia 
at the Peace Congress will be representatives of a 
free people fighting for freedom, arranging the 



CAUSES AND AIMS OF THE WAR 145 

future of democracy on the lines of freedom. 
That is what I mean when I say that not merely 
will the Russian Revolution ensure more com- 
plete victory, it will ensure victory more exalted 
than any one could have contemplated before. 

I ventured in August, 1915, to launch into the 
realms of prophecy. It was rather a dangerous 
thing to do, but if you will allow me I will quote 
what I said then about Russia. I referred to the 
great Russian defeat by the German forces. The 
Russian armies were broken, the Russian armies 
were in full retreat, and things looked darker 
than they had ever done in the whole course of the 
war. * ^ The Eastern sky is dark and lowering, the 
stars have been clouded over. I regard the stormy 
horizon with anxiety but with no dread. To-day 
I can see the colour of a new hope beginning to 
empurple the sky. The enemy in their victorious 
march know not what they are doing. Let them 
beware, for they are unshackling Russia. With 
their monster artillery they are shattering the 
rusty bars that fettered the strength of the people 
of Russia. You can see them shaking their power- 
ful limbs free from the stifling debris, and pre- 
paring for the conflict with a new spirit. They 
[the Germans] are hammering a sword that will 
destroy them and freeing a great nation to wield 
it with a more potent stroke and a mightier sweep 
than it ever yet commanded.'' 

That little speech got me into trouble with the 
Russian Court, but it is exactly what has hap- 
pened. That was the beginning of the end of au- 



146 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

tocracy, and Russia and the Russian people felt 
that the system which had brought such disaster 
upon them could not be safely entrusted in future 
with the honour of that great nation. Russia is 
now free, Russia is now unfettered, and when 
the distractions have passed away, Russia will 
be more powerful, Russia will be more formidable 
than ever, because in future the whole of her 
power will be cast on the side of liberty and de- 
mocracy, and not of autocracy. 

The Burden Cast Upon the Other Allies, 

Meanwhile, France, Italy, and ourselves have 
to bear the greatest share of the burden, and I 
should like to say to those who hailed the Rus- 
sian Revolution with delight as well as condemn- 
ing and doing their best to thwart the military 
efforts of their own country, that but for these 
military efforts the Russian Revolution would 
have had no chance to fructify. What would 
have happened if we had not been ready, if we 
had not had this great Army prepared, if we had 
not possessed such enormous equipment? I will 
tell you what would have happened. Germany 
would have concentrated one desperate effort to 
overwhelm free democracy in France while Rus- 
sia was engaged in the troubles of her revolution, 
and while the new democracy was arising in the 
East, the old democracy in the West, the great old 
democracy of France, would have been strangled. 
How long do you think the new democracy, the 



CAUSES AND AIMS OF THE WAR 147 

new democracy of the East, would have survived 
it? Not long, and you would have had one great 
outstanding military autocracy in Europe govern- 
ing from the East to the West, and only these lit-' 
tie islands standing between the world and dis- 
aster. 

I would counsel those who criticise the measures 
we have taken to mobilise the strength of this 
country — strong measures, ruthless measures if 
you will, interfering measures if you will, but 
measures which will accomplish their purpose — ^to 
dwell upon the catastrophe that would have be- 
fallen the free democracies throughout the world 
if we had not done so. It was Britain, the strength 
of Britain flung into the breach, that once more 
saved Europe and human liberties. Even dur- 
ing the last few weeks, when Eussia was not ready, 
we defeated the German Army at its strongest, 
and at its boastfulest. Now Russia is gaining 
strength every day; it has a capable, strong 
Government of able, patriotic men guiding its 
destinies. Russia never had a better Government 
than the men who are now wielding the power, 
and her armies will fight henceforth with that 
power which is inspired by freedom. 

And America — always the mainstay and the 
hope of freedom — America, who never engaged 
in a war yet except for freedom — America is be- 
ginning to send her valiant sons to the battlefields 
of Europe to fight around the standards of liberty. 
That is why I say that although victory may have 
been postponed by the events of the last few 



!148 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

months in Russia, victory will be more complete, 
victory will be on higher lines, than ever we 
could have hoped. 

The Conditions of Victory. 

It is assured, under two conditions : the first is 
that the submarine attack must be defeated, or 
kept within reasonable bounds. They may, and 
probably will, drive us to further restrictions in 
some trades, perhaps to hardships, but all de- 
pends on the nation, for after carefully reckon- 
ing the chances, the probabilities, the Government 
have come to the conclusion, on the best advice 
that we can seek, that submarines can neither 
starve us at home nor drive our armies out of the 
field abroad. In the words of the song we had at 
the beginning, despite the worst they can do, 
^* Britain will rule the waves" through the war 
and after the war. Our losses in May and June 
were heavy, but they were hundreds of thousands 
of tons beneath the Admiralty forecast of what 
they would be. We are beginning to get them. 
The arrangements that have been made for frus- 
trating them and for destroying them are im- 
proving, and I have no hesitation in saying that 
if we all do our part the German submarine will 
be almost as great a failure as the German Zep- 
pelin. 

# * # # # 

What is the next condition? The moral of the 
nation must be kept up; that is essential. Our 



CAUSES AND AIMS OF THE WAR 149 

Army is great, and tlie Army now is the people. 
There is hardly a household which has not con- 
tributed to the Army. It is a sample of the peo- 
ple God planted in these islands. We can view 
with pride the achievements of our Army. I am 
not afraid of the Army, but take care that the 
spirit of the people behind them is as good as that 
of the Army; if not, it affects the Army. I met 
a young fellow who had been in the fighting at 
Vimy and at Arras, and he said : * ^ We came back, 
and we were all so cheerful. We saw the Huns 
running for four or ^ye miles before British bayo- 
nets. We stormed positions that defied armies 
for two or three years, and we were so cheerful 
when we came back. Then we picked up the pa- 
pers full of grumblings and grousings from Eng- 
land.'^ His conclusion was a memorable one: 
*^You will never give us a chance of being cheer- 
ful.'' That is not fair to the Army. After all, 
everybody is doing his best within human limi- 
tations — generals, officers, soldiers, admirals, 
sailors, officials, employers, workmen, yea. Minis- 
ters of the Crown — forgive me for saying it — ^we 
are doing our best in our way. I cannot see any 
slackening or indolence anywhere; and will you 
allow me to say there is one man who is work- 
ing as hard as the hardest-worked man in this 
country, and that is the Sovereign of this realm.* 
I am quite sure His Majesty the King will ap- 
preciate the fact that the citizens of Glasgow 

* Here the whole of the audience rose spontaneously to their 
feet and sang "God Save the King." 



150 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

realise the contribution lie is making to tlie work 
of the nation under these trying conditions. 



<< 



Keep Steady!'* 



What is wanted, therefore, is that the nation 
should keep steady. It is he who endureth to the 
end that will win. Don't allow the nation to be 
^^ rattled." I rather object to John Bull always 
being represented as if he were in a towering 
rage with somebody or something, growling at 
his food, and generally swearing at everybody. 
That does not represent him. As a matter of 
fact he is a good-tempered, forbearing, patient, 
tenacious old gentleman, who has cultivated the 
habit of never giving in once he has made up his 
mind about it. There are people who think the 
nation is like a petrol machine, that it can only 
be driven by a rapid succession of petty explo- 
sions, and unless they always hear its spluttering 
they think the machine is at a standstill. Not at 
all. Let us keep steady, that is my advice to the 
nation; and I appeal to those who address the 
public, whether on platforms or in the public 
Press, to keep up the nerve of the nation, to sup- 
port it in its purpose. If we grip hard we shall 
win victory, but don't let us fray the rope, other- 
wise it might not bear the strain. I specially ap- 
peal to the great journals of this country. Every 
morning and evening they are in the households 
of the people, and if they breathe distrust and dis- 
sension and suspicion they weaken the purpose 



CAUSES AND AIMS OF THE WAR 151 

of tlie people gradually; but if they breathe con- 
fidence, unity, strength, and hope, it adds to the 
power of the people to go through this terrible 
crisis. That is why I am appealing first of all 
to those who have power and influence in the land, 
whether great or small, each in his circle helping 
the spirit of the nation to support its purpose, 
give strength to its will. Then victory is as- 
sured to us — as surely as the rising of the sun to- 
morrow 

TJie Allies^ War Aims. 

There are people asking: When are you go- 
ing to bring this war to an end, how are you go- 
ing to bring it to an end, and when you have 
brought it to an end what end do you want for it? 
All of them are justifiable questions, and all of 
them demand reasonable answer, and I propose to 
make ,my contribution to the solution of these 
direct and searching questions. 

In my judgment this war will come to an end 
when the Allied Powers have reached the aims 
which they set out to attain when they accepted 
the challenge thrown down by Germany to civilisa- 
tion. These aims were set out recently by Presi- 
dent Wilson with his unrivalled gift of succinct 
and trenchant speech. As soon as these objec- 
tives are reached and guaranteed, this w^ar ought 
to come to an end, but if it comes to an end a 
single hour before, it will be the greatest disaster 
that has ever befallen mankind. I hear there are 
people going about the country saying Germany 



152 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

is prepared to give you peace now, an honourable 
peace, and a satisfactory peace. Well, let us ex- 
amine that. If it is true, then it would be criminal 
if we sacrificed more precious life and treasure, 
and prolonged the wretchedness and anxiety and 
suffering associated with the war. No doubt you 
can have peace; you can have peace now. Ger- 
many will give us peace now — at a price. Ger- 
many wants peace, even Prussia ardently desires 
it. They don't enjoy seeing their veteran soldiers 
hurled back time after time by what they regard 
as an amateur army. It does not give them 
pleasure; it does not rouse their enthusiasm; it 
does not make them eager to get more of it. They 
don't like to see their crack — somebody said 
cracked — regiments prisoners of war, and hun- 
dreds of their cannon captured. It is humiliat- 
ing constantly to fall back. **A little territory 
here and a little land there, and just a few privi- 
leges in the other direction, and we will clear 
out." 

'^Buying Out the Goth/[ 

Well, you can have peace at that price, but do 
you know what it would be? The old policy of 
buying out the Goth, which eventually destroyed 
the Roman Empire, and threw Europe into the 
ages of barbarous cruelties. Believe me, that 
policy had its undoubted advantages. I can hear 
the echoes of the pacifists of the day in the Roman 
Forum dwelling on the fact that if they could only 
buy out the Goths at a small price compared 



CAUSES AND AIMS OF THE WAR 15S 

with the war, a little territory and a little cash, 
the Eoman youth would be spared the terrors 
of war, and their parents the anxieties of war, 
people of all ranks and classes would avoid the 
hardships of war, and be able to continue their 
lives of comfort and luxury and ease. The 
pacifists of the day, when they made the bargain 
that avoided bloodshed, had only transmitted it 
to the children. You remember what the Roman 
Senator said of one of these bargains, which gave 
peace for the moment to the Roman Empire. He 
said **This is not a peace, it is a pact of serv- 
tude. ' ' So it was. If they had bravely and wisely 
faced their responsibilities what would have hap- 
pened? Rome would have thrown off its sloth as 
Britain did in 1914 ; its blood cleansed by sacrifice, 
the old vitality, the old virility of the race would 
have been restored, Rome would have been 
grander than ever, its rule would have been more 
beneficent, and the world would have been spared 
centuries of cruelties and chaos. 

German Offers. 

You can have peace to-day, but it would be on 
a basis that history has demonstrated to be fatal 
to the lives of any great commonwealth that pur- 
chased tranquillity upon it. I am told that if you 
are prepared to make peace now, Germany, for 
instance, would restore the independence of Bel- 
gium. But who says so? There are men in this 
country who profess to know a good deal about 



154i THE GREAT CRUSADE 

the intentions of German statesmen. No German 
statesman lias ever said they would restore the 
independence of Belgium. The German Chan- 
cellor came very near it, but the Junkers forth- 
with fell upon him, and he was boxed soundly on 
the ear by the mailed fist, and he has never re- 
peated the offence. He said: *^We will restore 
Belgium to its people, but it must form part of the 
economic system of Germany, of the military and 
naval defence of Germany. We must have some 
control over its ports.'' That is the sort of inde- 
pendence Edward I. offered to Scotland, and af- 
ter a good many years Scotland gave its final an- 
swer at Bannockburn. That is not independence 
— that is vassalage. 

The Meaning of Indemnity, 

Then there comes the doctrine of the status 
quo — ^no annexations, no indemnities. No Ger- 
man speeches are explicit on that. But what does 
indemnity mean? A man breaks into your house, 
turns you out for three years, murders some of 
the inmates, and is guilty of every infamy that 
barbarism can suggest, occupies your premises for 
three years, and turns round and says when the 
law is beginning to go against him, ^^Take your 
house; I am willing to give you the status quo, 
I will not even charge you any indemnity." But 
even a pacifist, if it were done in his house, would 
turn round and say, *^You have wronged me. You 
have occupied these premises for three years. 



CAUSES AND AIMS OF THE WAR 155 

You have done me an injury. You must pay com- 
pensation. There is not a law in the civilised 
world that does not make it an essential part of 
justice that you should do so.'' And he says in 
a lofty way, **My principle is *No indemnity.' " 
It is not a question of being vindictive, it is not 
a question of pursuing revenge; indemnity is an 
essential part of a mechanism of civilisation in 
every land and clime; otherwise, what guarantee 
have you against a repetition, against the man 
remaining there for three years and, when it has 
got rather too hot for him, clearing out and pay- 
ing neither rent nor compensation? Why, every 
man in this land would be at the mercy of any 
strong-handed villain. 

There is no law, there is no civilisation in that. 
You could not keep the community together. We 
are fighting for the essential principles of civili- 
sation, and unless we insist upon it we shall not 
have vindicated what is the basis of right in every 
land. The same thing applies to Serbia. 

But they say, * ' That is not what you are after. 
You are after our colonies and Mesopotamia, and 
perhaps Palestine." If we had entered into this 
war purely for German colonies we would not have 
raised an army of three or four millions. We 
could have got them all without adding a single 
battalion to the army we had, and if Germany 
had won elsewhere we should have defied the 
whole of her victorious legions to take one of them 
back. If we engaged in the gigantic enterprise, 
it was not for German colonies. Our greatest 



156 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

army is in France. What territory are we after 
there 1 We have an army in Salonika. What land 
are we coveting there? We are there to recover 
for people who have been driven out of their 
patrimony the land which belongs to them and to 
their fathers. 

Mesopotwmia. 

But they say, '* What is going to happen to those 
colonies? What is going to happen to Mesopo- 
tamia!'' Well, if you like, take Mesopotamia. 
Mesopotamia is not Turkish, never has been 
Turkish ; the Turk is as much an alien in Mesopo- 
tamia as the German, and every one knows how 
he ruled it. This was the Garden of Eden. What 
a land it is now ! You have only to read that ter- 
rible report to see what a country the Turk has 
made of the Garden of Eden. This land, the 
cradle of civilisation, once the granary of civili- 
sation, the shrine and the temple of civilisation, 
is a wilderness under the rule of the Turk. 

What will happen to Mesopotamia must be left 
to the Peace Congress when it meets, but there is 
one thing that will never happen to it — it will 
never be restored to the blasting tyranny of the 
Turk. At best he was the trustee of this far- 
famed land on behalf of civilisation. Ah ! What 
a trustee ! He has been false to his trust and the 
trusteeship must be given over to more com- 
petent and more equitable hands, chosen by the 
Congress which will settle the affairs of the world. 
That same observation applies to Armenia, a land 



CAUSES AND AIMS OF THE WAK 157 

soaked with the blood of innocents massacred by 
the people who were bound to protect them. 



The German Colonies, 

As to the German colonies, that is a matter 
which mnst be settled by the great international 
Peace Congress. Let me point out that our critics 
talk as if we had annexed lands peopled by Ger- 
mans, as if we had subjected the Teutonic people 
to British rule. When you come to settle who 
shall be the future trustees of these uncivilised 
lands, you must take into account the sentiments 
of the people themselves, what confidence has 
been inspired in their untutored minds by the 
German rule of which they have had an experi- 
ence, whether they are anxious to secure the re- 
turn of their former masters, or whether they 
would rather trust their destinies to other and 
juster and — ^may I confidently say — gentler hands 
than those who have had the governing of them 
up to the present time. The wishes, the desires, 
and the interests of the people of these countries 
themselves must be the dominant factor in settling 
their future government. That is the principle 
upon which we are proceeding. 

Guarantees of Peace. 

Is there any trace of any desire on the part of 
Germany, any indication of a desire on the part 
of Germany, to settle upon these essential terms? 



158 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

Where are the negotiations? In a speech which 
appeared in the Glasgow papers this morning, 
delivered, I think yesterday, by the Austrian 
Premier, he emphatically repudiated the princi- 
ple that nations must have their destinies con- 
trolled according to their desires. Where is the 
common ground for peace there? Unless looth. 
principles are accepted, not merely will there be 
no peace, but if you had a peace there would be 
no guarantee of its continuance. 

What will have to be guaranteed, first of all, by 
the conditions of peace! That they should be 
framed upon so equitable a basis that nations 
will not wish to disturb them. They must be 
guaranteed by the destruction of the Prussian 
military power; by the certainty that the con- 
fidence of the German people shall be in the equity 
of their cause and not in the might of their arms. 
May I say that a better guarantee than either 
would have been the democratisation of the Ger- 
man Government? 

One of the outstanding features of the war has 
been the reluctance with which democratic 
countries entered it, and the historian will con- 
clude, in reviewing the facts of these last few 
years, that if all the belligerent nations had been 
ruled by Governments directly responsible to their 
peoples there would have been no war. And if the 
German Government's Constitution becomes as 
democratic as either the French, Italian, Ameri- 
can, Russian, or British Governments' Consti- 
tutions are, that in itself would constitute the 



CAUSES AND AIMS OF THE WAR 159 

best gnarantee for peace in Europe and the world 
that we can hope to secure. 

No one wishes to dictate to the German people 
the form of government under which they choose 
to live. That is a matter entirely for themselves ; 
but it is right we should say that we could enter 
into negotiations with a free Government in Ger- 
many with a different attitude of mind, a different 
temper, a different spirit, with less suspicion, with 
more confidence, than we could with a Govern- 
ment whom we know to be dominated by the ag- 
gressive and arrogant spirit of Prussian mili- 
tarism ; and the Allied Governments would, in my 
judgment, be acting wisely if they drew that dis- 
tinction in their general attitude to a discussion 
of the terms of peace. The fatal error committed 
by Prussia in 1870 — the error which undoubtedly 
proves her bad faith at that time — ^was that when 
she entered the war she was fighting against a 
restless military Empire dominated largely by 
military ideals with military traditions behind 
them. When that Empire fell it would have been 
wisdom on the part of Germany to recognise the 
change immediately. Democratic France was a 
more sure guarantee for the peace of Germany 
than the fortress of Metz or the walled ramparts 
of Strassburg. If Prussia had taken that view 
European history would have taken a different 
course. It would have acted on the generous 
spirit of the great people who dwell in France ; it 
would have reacted on the spirit and policy of 
Germany herself. Europe would have reaped a 



160 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

harvest of peace and good will amongst men in- 
stead of garnering, as she does now, a whirlwind 
of hate, rage, and human savagery. I trust that 
the Allied Governments will take that as an ele- 
ment in their whole discussion of the terms and 
prospects of peace. 

Fighting for Future Generations, 

I have one thing to say in conclusion. In pur- 
suing this conflict we must think not merely of the 
present but of the future of the world. We are 
settling questions which will affect the lives of 
people, not merely in this generation but for count- 
less generations to come. In France last year I 
went along the French front and I met one of the 
finest generals in the French Army, General 
Gouraud, and he said : * * One of my soldiers a few 
days ago did one of the most gallant and daring 
things any soldier ever did. He was reckless, but 
he managed to come back alive, and someone said 
to him, 'Why did you do that! You have four 
children and you might have left it to one of the 
young fellows in the army. What would have 
happened to your children ? ' And his answer was, 
*It was for them I did it.' " 

"Hallowed Causes,'' 

This war involves issues upon which will de- 
pend the lives of our children and our children's 
children. Sometimes in the course of humaa 



CAUSES AND AIMS OF THE WAR 161 

events great challenges are hurled from the un- 
known amongst the sons and daughters of men. 
Upon the answer which is given to these chal- 
lenges, and upon the heroism with which the 
answer is sustained, depends the question 
whether the world would be better or whether 
the world be worse for ages to come. These chal- 
lenges end in terrible conflicts which bring 
wretchedness, misery, bloodshed, martyrdom in 
all its myriad forms to the world, and if you look 
at the pages of history these conflicts stand out 
like great mountain ranges such as you have in 
Scotland — scenes of destruction, of vast conflicts, 
scarred by the volcanoes which threw them up, 
but drawing blessings from the heavens, they ferti- 
lise the valleys and the plains perennially far 
beyond the horizon of the highest peaks. 

You had such a conflict in Scotland in the six- 
teenth and seventeenth centuries, a great fight for 
the right of men to worship God according to their 
consciences. The Scottish Covenanters might 
have given this answer to the challenge: they 
might have said, **Let there be peace in our time, 
Lord.'' They might have said, '^Why should 
we suffer for privileges that even our fathers 
never enjoyed? If we win we may never live to 
enjoy the fruits of it, but we have got to face priva- 
tions, unspeakable torture, the destruction of our 
homes, the scattering of our families, and name- 
less death. Let there be peace." Scotland would 
have been a thing of no account among the nations. 
Its hills would have bowed their heads in shame 



162 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

for the people they sheltered. But the answer of 
the old Scottish Covenanter, the old, dying Cove- 
nanter Cargill, rings down the ages even to us at 
this fateful hour. ** Satisfy your conscience and 
go forward. ' ' That was the answer. That conflict 
was fought in the valleys of Scotland and the rich 
plains and market-places of England, where 
candles were lighted which will never be put out; 
and on the plains, too, of Bohemia, and on the 
fields and in the walled cities of Germany, there 
Europe suffered unendurable agonies and mis- 
eries ; but at the end of it humanity took a great 
leap forward towards the dawn. 

Then came the conflict of the eighteenth century, 
the great fight for the right of men, as men, and 
Europe again was drenched with blood, but at the 
end of it the peasantry were free and democracy 
became a reality. 

Now we are faced with the greatest and the 
grimmest struggle of all. Liberty, Equality, 
Fraternity, not amongst men, but amongst na- 
tions — great and small, powerful and weak, ex- 
alted and humble, Germany and Belgium, Aus- 
tria and Serbia — equality, fraternity, amongst 
peoples as well as amongst men — ^that is the chal- 
lenge which has been thrown to us. Europe is 
again drenched with the blood of its bravest and 
best. But, do not forget, these are the great suc- 
cessions of hallowed causes; they are the Sta- 
tions of the Cross on the road to the emancipa- 
tion of mankind. Let us endure as our fathers 
did. Every birth is an agony, and the new world 



CAUSES AND AIMS OF THE WAR 16S 

is bom out of the agony of ttie old world. My ap- 
peal to the people of this country, and, if my ap- 
peal can reach beyond it, is this, that we should 
continue to fight for the great goal of interna- 
tional right and international justice, so that 
never again shall brute force sit on the throne of 
justice, nor barbaric strength wield the sceptre of 
right. 



'^VICTORY WILL COME.'' 

EXTRACT FROM A SPEECH DELIVERED AT DUNDEE, ON BEING 
PRESENTED WITH THE FREEDOM OF THAT CITY, JUNE 30tH, 

1917. 

I KNOW the struggle is a prolonged one; I al- 
ways knew it would be. I have always urged 
plans on the assumption that it was going to be 
a long one. The evil was a great one and you don't 
root great evils out of the earth without great 
struggles. All the same, with a continuous, per- 
sistent, unflinching, unfaltering will we shall win. 
There are occasional discouragements, there are 
occasional disappointments. So there are in every 
great struggle; the end seems to be postponed. I 
remember in the early days of April attending a 
conference on the Italian frontier. I passed 
through lands that ought to have been green with 
springtime. They were bleak and grey ; there was 
not a bud to be seen ; the land was still locked in 
the cells of winter. All was cold and forbidding, 
and I entered the warm valleys of Savoy and they 
were blind with a driving blizzard, and I said, 
* * Will the winter ever cease ? Will the spring ever 
come? Shall we ever see the summer sun and the 
harvest again?" And for the moment I had a 
thrill of horror that some visitation had come 

164 



"VICTORY WILL COME'* 165 

•Qpon the earth. I came back in a fortnight and 
the sun was shining, the trees were in bud. The 
earth of France had burst the shackles of winter ; 
the ahnond was in bloom ; the glorious splendour 
of spring was upon the earth, and I knew France 
was free. And I tell you now, although the win- 
ter tarries the springtime of victory will come. 



BELGIUM. 

EXTRACTS FROM A SPEECH DELIVERED AT THE QUEEN 'S 

HAL.L TO COMMEMORATE THE ANNIVERSARY OF BELGIAN 

INDEPENDENCE, JULY 21ST, 1917. 

We are here to-day on the anniversary of the in- 
dependence of the people who have rendered such 
unforgettable services to the independence of 
Europe. The world will never forget the services 
rendered by Belgium to international right, for 
the great battles of Europe during recent centuries 
have been fought on her soil. Belgium is the gate- 
way between the Central Powers and the West, 
and modern statesmen had devised the plan — if 
I may use the phrase — of putting Belgium out of 
boimds and thus preserving the liberties of Europe 
by making it impossible either for an aggressive 
France to destroy Germany or an aggressive Ger- 
many to destroy France. The Treaty of the Neu- 
trality of Belgium was one of the pediments of 
the public law of Europe. Belgium was the gate- 
keeper of European liberty — ^the highest, the most 
onerous, the most dangerous trust ever imposed 
on a people. Faithfully, loyally, have the Belgian 
people discharged their trust to Europe. If I 
may quote from an historic document — a document 
which is part of the history of the world, the reply 

166 



BELGIUM 167 

of tlie Belgian Government to tlie German Ulti- 
matum — there is nothing that more clearly states, 
not merely the duty of Belgium to Europe, but the 
way in which you Belgians have discharged that 
duty: — 

**The Belgian Government, if they were to ac- 
cept the proposals submitted to them, would sacri- 
fice the honour of the nation and betray their 
duty towards Europe/' A great answer, greatly 
kept. 

What were the German proposals ? They were 
the proposals of the assassin who approached a 
man and said, *^Open unto me your gates, so that 
I may take your peaceful neighbour at a disad- 
vantage." What manner of mind must men pos- 
sess when they suggest such an infamy to any- 
body? Belgium, as an honourable people, re- 
jected it with disdain, and great will be their 
status for evermore in the story of the world. 

The Agony of Belgium,, 

But Belgium has suffered for performing her 
high duty and keeping her high trust. She has 
suffered the unbridled savagery of the conqueror, 
the men who are committing outrages in France 
and in Belgium that Attila had not the fine cruelty 
to devise; the pirates of the high seas who are 
sinking unarmed merchant vessels and passenger 
ships and drowning women and children. That 
fury has been concentrated for three years upon 
Belgium. Three years of oppression, of humilia- 



168 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

tion, of servitude, of anxiety, of agony. But at 
the end Belgium will be greater than she ever 
was. Her sacrifice will be her discipline ; her for- 
titude will be her redemption. In the words of 
your heroic King, **A country defending itself is 
respected by all. That country will not perish." 
Three years — even of agony — are not long in 
the life of a nation, and the deliverance of Belgium 
is assuredly coming, and when it comes that de- 
liverance must be complete. France owes it, 
Britain owes it, Europe owes it, the civilisation of 
the world owes it to Belgium that her deliverance 
shall be complete. 

The German Chancellor's Speech, 

What have we in the way? There is a new 
Chancellor. The Junker has thrown the old 
Chancellor into the waste-paper basket with his 
scrap of paper and they are lying there side by 
side. You will not have to wait long before 
Junkerdom will follow. What hope is there in 
his speech of peace — I mean an honourable peace, 
which is the only possible peace? It is a dexter- 
ous speech, a facing-all-ways speech. There are 
phrases for those who earnestly desire peace — 
many. But there are phrases which the military 
powers of Germany will understand — phrases 
about making the frontiers of Germany secure. 
That is the phrase which annexed Alsace-Lor- 
raine; that is the phrase which has drenched 
Europe with blood from 1914; that is the phrase 



BELGIUM 169 

which, if they dare, will annex Belgium ; and that 
is the phrase which will once more precipitate 
Europe into a welter of blood within a generation 
unless that phrase is wiped out of the statesman- 
ship of Europe. 

There are phrases for men of democratic mind 
in that speech — many. He was calling men from 
the Reichstag to co-operate with the Government; 
they were even to get office, men of all parties and 
men of democratic sentiment. But there were 
phrases to satisfy the Junkers — to other men 
nothing. There was to be no parting with Im- 
perialistic rights. Ah! They will call men from 
the Reichstag to office, but they will be not Min- 
isters, but clerks. It is the speech of a man wait- 
ing on the military situation, and let the Allies — 
Russia, Britain, France, Italy, all of them — ^bear 
that in mind. It is a speech that can be made bet- 
ter by improving the military situation. If the 
Germans win in the West, if they destroy the Rus- 
sian army in the East, if their friends the Turks 
drive Britain out of Mesopotamia, if the U-boats 
sink more merchant ships, then that speech, be- 
lieve me, means annexation all round and military 
autocracy more firmly established than ever. But, 
on the other hand, should the German army be 
driven back in the West, be beaten in the East, 
and should their friends the Turks fail in Bagh- 
dad, and the submarines be a failure on the high 
seas, that speech is all right. We must all help 
to make that a good speech. There are possibil- 
ities in it of excellence. Let us help Dr. Michaelis ; 



170 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

let us give our assistance to the new Chancellor to 
make his first speech a real success. But for the 
moment it means that the military party have 
won. 

1 want to repeat in another form a statement 
which I made before. What manner of Govern- 
ment they choose to rule over them is entirely the 
business of the German people themselves; but 
what manner of Government we can trust to make 
peace with is our business. Democracy is in itself 
a guarantee of peace, and if you cannot get it in 
Germany, then we must secure other guarantees 
as a substitute. The German Chancellor's speech 
shows, in my judgment, that those who are in 
charge of affairs in Germany have for the mo- 
ment elected for war. 



Belgium Must Be Restored. 

There is no hope for Belgium in that speech. 
It is not even mentioned. The phraseology is full 
of menace to Belgium. All that about making 
their frontiers secure — ^w^hich took Metz and 
Strassburg away, and will take Liege and the con- 
trol over Antwerp again — that is not a phrase of 
good omen for Belgium. All that about the neces- 
sity of seeing that the economic interests of Ger- 
many are secure means that, even if they restore 
Belgium, their restoration will be a sham. The 
determination of the Allies is this, that Belgium 
must be restored as a free and an independent 
people. Belgium must be a people and not a Pro- 



BELGIUM 171 

tectorate. We must not have a Belgian scabbard 
for the Prussian sword. The sceptre must be 
Belgian, the sword must be Belgian, the scab- 
bard must be Belgian, the soul must be Belgian. 

I read that speech, as it was my duty to read 
it, once, twice, thrice, to seek anything in it which 
would give hope for an end of this bloodshed, 
and I see a sham independence for Belgium, a 
sham democracy for Germany, a sham peace for 
Europe ; and I say Europe has not sacrificed mil- 
lions of her gallant sons to set up on soil con- 
secrated by their blood a mere sanctuary for 
shams. 

# # # « * 

Democracy versus Awtocracy. 

The issues are becoming clearer day by day. 
Belgium, with a sure instinct, understood them 
the first hour of the contest. You made no mis- 
take as to what this great conflict meant for you, 
for France, for Britain, for Europe, for the world, 
for humanity, for all generations. It is to your 
glory that you have jumped to the right conclu- 
sion. A great German newspaper said the other 
day that the Germans were fighting for the free- 
dom and independence of the Fatherland. It was 
never true. It is less true to-day than it ever was. 
The freer Germany is, the more independent Ger- 
many is, the better we like it. Those who are the 
enemies of the freedom and independence of Ger- 



172 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

many are lier own rulers and not the Allied 
Powers. 

We prefer a free Germany. We can make peace 
with a free Germany. It is with a Germany dom- 
inated by autocracy that we cannot make any 
terms of peace. When they were lighting perhaps 
a corrupt and narrow autocracy in the East they 
had some specious pretext for appeals of that 
kind to their own people. They have none now. 
For what has happened? Russia has not merely 
become a great democracy which is not fighting 
to extend its own territories; it has actually de- 
clared that it is prepared to concede independence 
to a nation w^hich was once under the Russian flag. 
Since then the last shadow of a pretext on the 
part of Germany that she is fighting for freedom 
and independence has completely vanished, even 
if she ever had one. 

It has now become a struggle between two 
definite groups : one a democratic group — a group 
of democratic, free nations; another a group of 
nations governed by military autocracy — Ger- 
many, Austria, Turkey, and King Ferdinand of 
Bulgaria — fit associates. That is the grouping. 



In the great coming struggles in the East and in 
the West, every German soldier must know in his 
heart that if he falls he will be dying for mili- 
tary autocracy in fighting against the federation 
of free peoples. On the other hand, every Bel- 
gian soldier, every French soldier, every Russian 



BELGIUM 173 

soldier knows that lie is risking Ms life for the 
freedom and independence of his naitive land. 
Every British, every American, every Portuguese 
soldier knows that he will be fighting side by side 
with the others for international right and justice 
throughout the world ; and it is that growing con- 
viction more even than the knowledge of vast un- 
exhausted resources which gives them all heart — 
it gives us heart — ^to go on fighting to the end, 
knowing full well that the future of mankind is 
our trust to maintain and to defend. 



SERBIA. 

SPEECH DELIVERED AT THE SERBIAN LUNCH ( SAVOY HOTEL), 

AUGUST 8th, 1917. 

I FELT that I could not let this opportunity pass 
without coming here to say that my heart is with 
Serbia, and to pay a personal tribute of deep re- 
spect to the venerable and distinguished Serbian 
Prime Minister. I have heard of and esteemed 
him for years as one of the wisest, most sage, and 
most patriotic figures in the East. Serbia owes a 
good deal to him. I think Europe owes a good deal 
to him. It was through his action — and he is far 
too wise a man not to have known that his action 
involved suffering for himself and his country — 
that the great challenge was accepted by civilisa- 
tion to the barbarism of Prussia. It is not for 
naught that two of the greatest statesmen in 
Europe at the present moment have been pro- 
duced by two comparatively small nations in the 
East — M. Pasitch and M. Venizelos- — to whose far- 
seeing patriotism we owe so much at the present 
moment. In fact, we owe far more than it is pos- 
sible for us to reveal as to the prospects of the 
future. M. Venizelos 's steadfastness, his cour- 
age, his insight, have kept the soul of Greece alive 
under most trying conditions. But we are here 

174 



SERBIA 175 

specially to do honour to the leader of the small 
nation which has passed through such trying con- 
ditions during the last three years. 



<t 



Singing of Defeat/' 



I am a believer in little nations. I have the 
honour to belong to one myself. There is one thing 
about the Serbian nation that always touches me 
as a Welshman. I believe in a nation that can 
sing about its defeats. The great event in the 
story of Serbia is not a triumph, not a victory, 
but a great defeat that submerged it in bar- 
barism. Yet Serbia sang of that right through 
the centuries until the day of restoration came. 
If I may say so, that is almost what has hap- 
pened in the case of my little people — our greatest 
song is the song that drove us into the mountains, 
but we always sang it with hope, and we are still 
alive. So the people of Serbia sang in the moun- 
tains of the battle of Kossovo, with the refrain 
of sadness, and a certain lilt of hope at the end 
of it, until the day of triumph came. 

Serbia to he Restored. 

A nation that can sing about its defeat is a na- 
tion which is immortal, and that is why Serbia is 
immortal. At present she is submerged in a del- 
uge of barbarism, but she is not destroyed. Like 
a fresco, a beautiful picture covered with the foul- 
ness of centuries, something comes to cleanse it, 



176 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

and it is as fresh and bright as when it came from 
the hand of the master. That is Serbia — a great 
picture painted in the mountains of the East by 
the hand of the Great Master, limned and coloured 
with all the foulness of Turkish barbarism. Does 
anyone imagine that a race which survives the 
centuries without degradation is going to die by 
two or three years of defeat! That is why I be- 
lieve in Serbia. She has the necessary grit, en- 
durance, hope, and faith that will make her live. 
I fear not what is going to happen to Serbia. 
What I ventured to say about Belgium, speaking 
on behalf of the British Government, I say here 
again, speaking on behalf of the same Govern- 
ment and of the people of Serbia — the first con- 
dition of peace is restoration, complete and with- 
out reservation. I came here to make no speech. 
I came to say that however long this war may 
last — and it is in the hands of God — British hon- 
our is involved in seeing that Serbian independ- 
ence is fully restored. 

It is not merely a matter of honour ; it is a mat- 
ter of the security of civilisation. Just as Belgium 
is the warder of the gateway of the West, so 
Serbia is the guardian of the gateway of the East, 
and faithfully has she stood to her trust. She has 
done it to her detriment. She has sutfered. She 
has had two, three glorious campaigns. With her 
own right hand she defeated the legions of Aus- 
tria, and had it not been for the overwhelming 
masses of the whole of the Central Powers that 
attacked her she would still have kept the gate. 



SERBIA 177 

But her gallant troops in the hour of defeat have 
never been broken-hearted. On the contrary, the 
remnants of her army have rallied together. Men 
came from the East and the West with Serbian 
blood in their veins, and their hearts throbbing 
with the traditions of their people. They are still 
at that door watching, and one day they will break 
through and recapture their independence. Once 
more we here extend the hand of fellowship to 
Serbia, and say, ^*Come weal, come woe, we are 
not merely Allies, but friends and partners, and 
we will go through the world together." 



THE PAN-GERMAN DREAM. 

EXTRACTS FROM A SPEECH DELIVERED AT QUEEN 'S HALL ON 
THE THIRD ANNIVERSARY OF THE DECLARATION OP WAR, 

AUGUST 4th, 1917. 

Why We Are at War, 

This is the third anniversary of the greatest 
war the world has ever witnessed. What are we 
fighting fori To defeat the most dangerous con- 
spiracy ever plotted against the liberty of nations, 
carefully, skilfully, insidiously, clandestinely 
planned in every detail with ruthless, cynical de- 
termination. Those who have read the revelations 
which have recently appeared of that meeting in 
Berlin a few weeks before the war must have 
read with a shudder the account of that meeting 
of the confederates before the firing of the train 
— one of the most sinister episodes in the whole 
history of brigandage. 

Should there be any man in this country who 
wants to know why we are at war, let him put 
this question to himself. What would have hap- 
pened to Europe — what would have happened to 
the world — ^if we had not gone into this war? See, 
looking back over the last three years, what has 
befallen Europe as our justification for entering 
the war. With the whole of our might thrown 
into the task — all our great Army and Navy — 

178 



THE PAN-GERMAN DREAM 179 

Belgium, Serbia, Rumania, Montenegro, some of 
the fairest provinces of France and Russia over- 
run, devastated, humiliated, and Bulgaria and 
Turkey miserable vassal States — that is what has 
happened with the whole weight of the British 
Empire thrown in on the other side. Can you pic- 
ture what would have happened if our vast Navy 
had not been keeping the seas ; if we had not been 
there to keep the ring and secure a certain measure 
of forbearance and fair play ; if we had not raised 
a huge new army to confront the Prussian legions? 
Russia would have been swallowed up. She is 
demoralised for the moment, and disintegration 
has rendered her brave army impotent for the 
present, but it would have happened sooner. 
France would have fought with all the traditional 
valour of her race, a valour which in history and 
in the despatches of to-day has thrilled the world 
with wonder; but with succour and supplies by sea 
cut off and left isolated on land, even her gallant 
armies might have been overwhelmed. What kind 
of peace would you have had in Europe then 1 It 
would not have been a peace ; it would have been a 
conquest, a subjugation of Europe ; Europe would 
have been at the mercy of one great dominating 
Power; yes, and at the mercy of the worst ele- 
ments of that Power. 

The Pan-German Dream. 

Will those people who still have doubt as to 
whether we ought to have intervened three years 



180 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

ago reflect tipon what kind of Europe there would 
be to-day if we had not gone into the war? There 
would have been many nations ; there would have 
been one Great Power ; there would have been two 
navies, Great Britain's and Germany's for a time 
— for a time ! Think of the terms of peace. In- 
demnity might have taken the form of a demand 
for surrender of navies, and Russia, France, 
Greece, perhaps Italy — Europe — ^would have been 
at the mercy of that great cruel Power. You 
may say this is a nightmare. It is not; it is the 
description of the Pan-German dream. 

What would have happened in America? The 
Monroe Doctrine would have been treated like any 
other ** scrap of paper." It was a doctrine to 
which Germany never subscribed, though if she 
had appended her signature to it, it would have 
made no difference ; but we know her ambitions in 
South America. Not a year after the signing of 
peace would have elapsed before she would have 
started to realise those ambitions, and America 
would have been helpless. The Allied Powers felt 
instinctively, from the first moment, that a great 
peril to human liberty had appeared on the hori- 
zon, and without delay, without hesitation, they 
accepted the challenge. America realised the 
peril later, and therefore is with us to-day. This 
peril we have for three years been trying to avert, 
and not without success. 

Do not be blinded, do not be discouraged, by 
any unfortunate episodes; realise the great cen- 
tral fact that we have checked the ambition of 



THE PAN-GERMAN DREAM 181 

Germany. The nations of the world have been 
painfully climbing the steep that leads to national 
independence and self-respect. Great Britain and 
France reached the plateau long ago. Other na- 
tions came later. It was towards the end of the 
nineteenth century that Italy achieved the posi- 
tion of an independent State. And then comes a 
Great Power with brute force to thrust the na- 
tions back, crushed and bleeding, into the old 
dark chasm of servitude. This is why we have 
been fighting for the last three years. 

''The Emser's Stutter." 

There are people who say : * *But the peril is now 
past. Why, therefore, do you not make peace? 
The Kaiser now talks a different language. You 
never hear now those resounding phrases about 
the world-power of Germany. He talks modestly 
about defending German soil.'' Who ever wanted 
to invade German soil! Did Britain with her 
'* contemptible little Army" want to invade Ger- 
many? Was Russia, who had not a railway sys- 
tem which was adequate to keeping an army to 
defend her own frontier, preparing for invasion? 
Was France, who was obviously unprepared to 
protect even her own frontiers, preparing for in- 
vasion? Or was it Belgium that was going to in- 
vade Germany? Was the Serbian army going 
to March to Berlin? No; the Kaiser must know 
that it is not true. That is not why he went to 
war. That is not why he is at war now. Even now 



182 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

neither he nor his new Chancellor say they will 
be satisfied with German soil. They both talk 
glibly of peace, but they stammer, they stutter, 
when they come to the word restoration. It has 
not yet crossed their lips in its entirety. We have 
challenged them. They cannot say it. Before we 
enter a peace conference they must learn to ntter 
that word to begin with. The gallant soldiers, of 
whom I am delighted to see specimens in this meet- 
ing, are gradually going to cure the Kaiser of this 
stutter. So far he has not yet learned the alpha- 
bet of peace. The first letter in that alphabet is 
restoration. Then we will talk. 

''No 'Next Time/" 

That is not all. War is a ghastly thing, but not 
as grim as a bad peace. There is an end to the 
most horrible war, but a bad peace goes on and on 
staggering from one war to another. What do 
they mean? Do they mean peace when they talk? 
The truth is — I have followed closely every line 
they have uttered, and I have watched their pa- 
pers — ^the Prussian war lords have not yet 
abandoned their ambitions. They are not dis- 
cussing that. They are only discussing the post- 
ponement of the realisation of these ambitions. 
There is a feeling among them — a genuine feeling, 
believe me — that this time the plot has miscarried. 
They are perfectly honest about that, and they 
blame this country with its Fleet and its factories, 
and they say, *^Had it not been for Britain all 



THE PAN-GERMAN DREAM 183 

would have been well." Next time they mean to 
make sure. There must be no *^make sure." A 
man in a very high and powerful position in Ger- 
many has said there will be peace shortly, but war 
will be resumed in ten years. That is their idea. 
This is the way they talk. They say, *'Well, there 
are many thinigs we ought to have foreseen. We 
ought to have had plenty of food stored in Ger- 
many. Next time we will see to that. We ought to 
have had plenty of cotton. Then, we have made 
a mistake about submarines. Instead of having 
two or three hundred, we ought to have had at 
least two or three thousand. ' ' Next time ! There 
must be no ^^next time"! Far better, in spite of 
all the cost, all the sorrow, and all the tragedy of 
it — ^let us have done with it ! Do not let us repeat 
this horror! Let us be the generation that man- 
fully, courageously, resolutely eliminated war 
from among the tragedies of human life. Let us, 
at any rate, make victory so complete that na- 
tional liberty, whether for great nations or for 
small nations, can never be challenged. That is 
the ordinary law. The small man, the poor man, 
has the same protection as the powerful man. So 
the little nation must be as well guarded and pro- 
tected as the big nation. 

You ask, ^^How are we getting on?" Well, like 
all roads that have ever been constructed, there 
are ups and downs, and no doubt the Russian col- 
lapse is rather a deep glen through which we are 
passing, and I am not sure that we have reached 
its darkest level. But across the valley I can see 



184 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

the ascent. I will give yon my reason. Eussia 
herself has been taught by this collapse the much- 
needed lesson that an army without discipline is 
a mere rabble where the brave are sacrificed to 
protect cowards. The French Revolution quickly 
taught that lesson, otherwise the Prussians and 
the Austrians would have quenched French liberty 
in the blood of its sons. 

# * # # * 



(( 



Both Eyes on Victory: 



While the Army is fighting so valiantly let the 
nation behind it be patient, be strong, and, above 
all, united. The strain is great on nations and on 
individuals, and when men get over-strained 
tempers get ragged, and small grievances are ex- 
aggerated, and small misunderstandings and mis- 
takes swell into mountains. Long wars, like long 
voyages and long journeys, are very trying to 
the temper, and wise men keep watch on it and 
make allowances for it. There are some who 
are more concerned about ending the war than 
about winning it, and plans which lead to victory, 
if they prolong the conflict, have their disapproval, 
and the people who are responsible for such plans 
have their condemnation. Let us keep our eye 
steadily on the winning of the war. May I say 
let us keep both eyes ? Some have a cast in their 
eye, and while one eye is fixed truly on victory, 
the other is wandering around to other issues or 
staring stonily at some pet or partisan project of 



THE PAN-GERMAN DREAM 185 

their own. Beware of becoming cross-eyed ! Keep 
both eyes on victory. Look neither to the right 
nor to the left. That is the way we shall win. If 
anyone promotes national distrust or disunion at 
this hour he is helping the enemy and hurting his 
native land. And it makes no difference whether 
he is for or against the war. As a matter of fact, 
the hurt is deeper if he is for the war, because 
whatever the pure pacifist says is discounted and, 
as far as the war is concerned, discredited. 

Let there be one thought in every head. If you 
sow distrust, discontent, disunion, in the nation 
we shall reap defeat. If, on the other hand, we 
sow the seeds of patience, confidence, and unity, 
we shall gamer in victory and its fruits. The last 
ridges of a climb are always the most trying to 
the nerves and to the heart, but the real test of 
great endurance and courage is the last few hun- 
dreds or scores of feet in a climb upwards. The 
climber who turns back when he is almost there 
never becomes a great mountaineer, and the na- 
tion that turns back and falters before it reaches 
its purpose never becomes a great people. You 
have all had experience in climbing, no doubt — 
perhaps in Wales. Any mountaineer can start; 
any sort of mountaineer can go part of the way; 
and very often the poorer the mountaineer, the 
greater is his ardour when he does start;, but 
fatigue and danger wear out all but the stoutest 
hearts, and even the most stout-hearted some- 
times fail when they come to the last slippery 
precipice. But if they do turn back and after- 



186 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

wards look up and see how near they had got to 
the top, how they curse the faint-he art edness 
which bade them give up when they were so near 
the goal ! 

No one has any idea, no one in Britain, France, 
Italy, or Eussia, nor in Germany, nor in Austria, 
how near the top we may be. A mere crag may 
hide it from our view. And there are accidents. 
Russia may have staggered for a moment, but she 
is still on the rope ; in due time she will be up again 
climbing, strong-limbed and firm of purpose, and 
together we shall reach the summit of our hopes. 



THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION. 

EXTRACTS FROM A SPEECH DELIVERED IN THE TOWN HALD 

OP bire:enhead on being presented with the freedom 

OF that city, SEPTEMBER 7tH, 1917. 

There is no use disguising the fact that the news 
from Russia is disappointing. I have always 
believed in telling the truth and the whole truth 
to my countrymen, because I Imow full well that 
that is the way to get the best out of them. I 
have always thought that the Eevolution, when it 
came, would have the effect of postponing victory. 
Revolutions may be good things or they may be 
bad things according to circumstances, but they do 
upset a country when they come. There is con- 
siderable disorganisation ; it inevitably follows. I 
did expect an earlier recovery, but what I want 
to say is that we must exercise patience. The 
Russian leaders, who are able and very patriotic 
men, very loyal to the cause of the Alliance, know 
quite well what is at stake. If Russia were de- 
feated and humiliated under the leadership of a 
Revolutionary Government large territories in 
Russia would be overrun, and many of them would 
be torn for ever from the side of Russia. The 
Germans are already referring to Riga — which 
they only captured a few hours ago — as the Ger- 
man town of Riga. The Russian leaders, I am 

187 



188 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

convinced, know that all this Revolution is at 
stake, and that the credit of democratic govern- 
ment in Russia and elsewhere is at stake. No 
people will readily forgive a system of government 
which cannot defend their native land against an 
invader. It is no mean part of the glory of the 
French Revolution that its sons, ill-clad, half 
starved, ragged, and tattered, still hurled back the 
armies of the invader, and kept France free. 
Those victories constitute the title-deeds of the 
French Revolution. Had the French Revolution- 
ary leaders permitted anarchy to paralyse na- 
tional defence their names would be held to-day 
in contempt in France, and the cause represented 
by the Revolution would have suffered, for 
Frenchmen are, above all, patriotic. 

Liberty Must Be Defended, 

But we must bear in mind that the Russians are 
repairing the machiae which has broken down. 
They are repairing that machine under fire. They 
are attempting to repair the mismanagement of 
centuries under the most trying circumstances, 
and we must be patient. I feel confident that in 
the end they will succeed. They know too well 
that if the Kaiser's army gets to Petrograd it will 
not go there to establish a reign of liberty. The 
French revolutionary leaders knew this when, at 
the end of the eighteenth century, the Emperor 
of Austria and the King of Prussia — the same au- 
tocratic partnership — invaded France. And they 



THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 189 

also knew that it was not enough to proclaim 
liberty in France. They had to defend it. It was 
not enough to declare liberty in the streets of 
Paris, they had to defend it on the Sambre and on 
the Mouse. It is all very well to worship at the 
shrine of liberty, but you cannot defend it with 
garlands. The Prussian sword would soon make 
short work of them. I am not concerned merely 
as to the effect upon victory, but because I know 
that a Russian failure would do infinite harm to 
the cause of democracy all the world over. The 
judgment would be an unjust one, because it would 
not take into full account all that had preceded. 
If the Russian democracy has not received that 
training which would enable it in a few months 
of war to run a great Empire with efficiency 
and steadiness, and which it has taken other 
countries generations and centuries to acquire, 
we must not blame the people but the system that 
deprived them of the education, the training, the 
opportunity, the experience, and the responsibility 
essential to enable any race to govern itself. We 
must make allowance for a nation, freed as it were 
by a lightning stroke from the oppression of cen- 
turies. It takes as long for an oppressed people 
to get accustomed to freedom as it does for a free 
people to get accustomed to oppression. 

Russia Loyal to the Allies. 

One thing gives me great encouragement : Ger- 
man attempts to sow dissension between the AI- 



190 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

lies, between tlie Allies in the West and the Al- 
lies in the East, have failed. Why did Germany 
not invade Russia months ago ? She did, not with 
armies but with agents. Battalions of them cover 
the land. What for? To sow distrust, suspicion, 
hatred of the Allies of Russia, and if Germany is 
to-day invading with her guns it is because she 
knows that her other methods have failed. At the 
great Conference at Moscow there was no dis- 
tinction of parties in the heartiness with which 
men of all sections declared their adhesion to the 
cause of the Allies and the loyalty of Russia to its 
treaty obligations. The old German attempt to 
produce the impression in Russia that the war was 
due to the machinations of England has not gone 
home. They know too well that it is a calumny. 
It is a falsehood on the face of it. The war be- 
gan in the East and not in the West. Russia was 
brought in because she undertook to champion the 
cause of Serbia; France was brought in because 
she had undertaken, by solemn treaty obligation, 
to stand by Russia if attacked; Belgium was 
brought in because she was on the direct road to 
France; Britain was brought in because she had 
given her word to defend Belgium. Russia was 
first in the fray and not last, and the leaders of 
Russian democracy know that, and that is why 
they have not been moved from their loyalty to 
the cause of the Allies in spite of all Prussian sub- 
terfuges, devices, and tricks. 

Had Russia been a democracy in 1914 she would 
not have allowed a small country of men and 



THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 191 

women of her own kith and kin to have been nn- 
scrupulously trampled npon by a confederacy of 
military autocracies. Surely, they are not less 
likely than autocracies to defend the weak, and 
anyone who contends that a Russian democracy in 
1914 would not have defended Serbia is libelling 
the people of Russia. 

However, the fact remains that the machinery 
has broken down for the moment in Russia. M. 
Kerensky and his colleagues have had cast upon 
them the terrible task of straightening the mis- 
management of centuries, and they are doing so 
under the fire of the Prussian guns. It is a dif- 
ficult task — a task that would try the mettle of 
any man. I believe the Eussian Ministers are 
equal to it. So I bid you so far from despairing 
of Russia to look forward with hope to her re- 
covery and to the great part she will take before 
this war is over in emancipating the world from 
the menace of Prussian militarism. Anything 
this country can do to assist — and when I speak 
of this country I am certain I can speak with equal 
confidence of other countries in the Alliance — 
whatever any and each of us can do to assist Rus- 
sia to restore her strength we shall only be too de- 
lighted to do. 

* * * * * 

Keep On! 

For all these reasons I bid you be of stout heart. 
The stout heart of Britain has won through 



192 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

greater difficulties than those which beset us at 
this hour. I have been in the habit once or twice 
of telling my Welsh fellow countrymen when there 
was anything that made them feel in the least de- 
pressed to look upon the phenomena of their hills. 
On a clear day they look as if they were near. 
You could reach them in an easy march — ^you could 
climb the highest of them in an hour. That is 
wrong; you could not. Then comes a cloudy day, 
and the mists fall upon them, and you say: 
'* There are no hills. They have vanished." 
Again, you are wrong. The optimist is wrong; 
the hills are not as near as he thought. The pessi- 
mist is still more wrong, because they are there. 
All you have to do is keep on, keep on. Falter 
not. We have many dangerous marshes to cross ; 
we will cross them. We have steep and stony 
paths to climb; we will climb them. Our foot- 
prints may be stained with blood, but we will reach 
the heights; and beyond them we shall see the 
rich valleys and plains of the new world which 
we have sacrificed so much to attain. 



THE DESTRUCTION OF A FALSE IDEAL. 

EXTRACTS FROM A SPEECH DELIVERED AT THE ALBERT HALL. 
ON THE LAUNCHING OF THE NEW WAR ECONOMY CAMPAIGN, 

OCTOBER 22nd, 1917. 

I AM not going to predict wlien the end of the 
war will come. No man in his senses would pro- 
long it one hour if there were an opportunity for 
a real and a lasting peace. But it must be a last- 
ing peace. It must not be a peace which is a prel- 
ude to a new and a more devastating war. As 
you may imagine, I have scanned the horizon 
anxiously and I cannot see any terms in sight 
which would lead to an enduring peace. I feel 
that the only terms which would be possible now 
would be terms which would end in an armed truce. 
I will say an arming truce, ending in an even more 
frightful struggle. This war is terrible beyond all 
wars, but, terrible as it is in itself, it is still more 
terrible in the possibilities which it has revealed 
of new horrors on land and sea and in the air. 

I ask those who are pressing, should there be 
any, for a premature peace, to reflect for a mo- 
ment what might happen if we made an unsatis- 
factory settlement. All the best scientific brains 
in all lands, stimulated by national rivalries, na- 
tional hatreds, national hopes, would be devot- 
ing their energies for ten, twenty, thirty years to 

193 



194. THE GREAT CRUSADE 

magnifying the destructive power of those hor- 
rible agents whose power has only just been dis- 
closed to the belligerents within the last few 
months. We must settle this once and for all. 
The power of the air in its initial stages, the in- 
fernal weapons of the deep basely developed, all 
those chemical elements which have been utilised 
for the first time — if this is going to be repeated 
after thirty years of scientific work and applica^ 
tion, believe me there are men and women in this 
hall now who may live to see the death of civilisa- 
tion. It must be the end of conflicts of this kind 
now. And that is why it is essential for the 
future well-being of the human race that such a 
decision should be reached now in this struggle, 
that brute force shall be dethroned for ever, so 
that our children may not be condemned to hor- 
rors and terrors which even the most vivid imag- 
ination dare not portray. 

The Potsdam Shrine. 

That is why we are putting all our strength into 
getting the right issue in this conflict now. But I 
ask the question : Is such a settlement within im- 
mediate reach? I have already told you that in 
my judgment, frankly, it is not. Germany, in 
my judgment, would only make peace now on 
terms which would enable her to benefit by the 
war into which she has wantonly plunged the 
world. That would mean that Germany would 
profit by her own wicked venture. It would be 



THE DESTRUCTION OF A FALSE IDEAL 195 

an encouragement for every domineering empire 
in the future to repeat the experiment. 

The failure of Napoleon taught France a les- 
son she never forgot, and a similar lesson — it took 
twenty years then and more ; it will not take that 
now — but a similar lesson must be burnt into the 
heart and memory of every Prussian before this 
war is done with. Amidst all discussions about 
terms and concessions here and there we must keep 
our eyes steadfastly on the great purposes of the 
war. It is not a question of territorial read- 
justment, except in so far as that is necessary for 
the recognition of national right. It is not a ques- 
tion of indemnities, except in so far as that is es- 
sential in order to compensate for wrong inflicted. 
It is pre-eminently a question of the destruction 
of a false ideal, which has intimidated and en- 
slaved Europe, or would have done so had it been 
triumphant. The real enemy is the war spirit 
fostered in Prussia. It is an ideal of a world in 
which force and brutality reign supreme, as 
against a world, an ideal of a world, peopled by 
free democracies, united in an honourable league 
of peace. That ideal, that war spirit, has its 
shrine in Potsdam, where for fifty years they 
have been incessantly plotting, planning, schem- 
ing how to invade this country and to trample 
down another. Eussia, Belgium, Serbia, France, 
Great Britain — all their energies, all their 
thoughts, every ingenuity has been exhausted in 
devising machinery; all their energies absorbed in 
manufacturing machinery. German industry, 



196 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

German education, German science, German poli- 
tics, German diplomacy, German flesh and blood, 
for generations have been devoted to the de- 
struction or the enslavement of their neighbours. 
That has been their dream, and it has been our 
nightmare. 

Time on Our Side. 

That is the war spirit enshrined in Potsdam. 
There will be no peace in the world, no liberty, 
until that shrine is shattered and its priesthood 
dispersed and discredited for ever. This year I 
had hoped that we might have broken that ter- 
rible power. We had all looked forward to the 
great converging movement which would have ac- 
complished that purpose. The temporary col- 
lapse of the Eussian military power has, I will not 
say disappointed, but postponed, our hopes. But 
time is on our side. There was a moment when 
time was a doubtful and dangerous neutral, rather 
disposed to favour our foes. Two things have 
changed his disposition. The first is the advent of 
America. To realise what that means vou have 
only to follow the rapid growth of our own little 
army to the position of one of the most formid- 
able armies in the field. America is now starting. 
Its resources in man-power are twice as consider- 
able as those of the United Kingdom. You have 
there about the best fighting material in the world. 
"We have good reason to know that. For in- 
genuity, resolution, bravery, they are indeed a 
formidable people, and their mechanical resources 



THE DESTRUCTION OF A FALSE IDEAL 197 

are unequalled in the whole world. They have 
oome in, and they are throwing the whole of their 
volcanic energy into preparing for the conflict. 
Time is on our side. 

What is the second factor? The increasing 
failure of the German submarine campaign. You 
can hardly realise, without going into it thor- 
oughly, how much Germany gambled on that. 
They said: *^In 1917 America will not count. She 
has no army.'' *^In 1918,'' they said, ^'she will 
not have very much of an army; 1919 will never 
arrive." That is how they reckon at Potsdam. 
Why did they say that? *^ Because," said Pots- 
dam, ^^ before 1918 arrives the shipping tonnage 
of the world will be rusting at the bottom of the 
deep." That was their reckoning. It was wrong. 
There are fluctuations, there are ups and downs, 
there are bad days and goods days, bad weeks 
and good weeks, but our monthly loss in tonnage 
in the good and the bad is not much over one- 
third of what it was in April last. I will give you 
another figure I have never given yet. The losses 
of German submarines during this year — ^not 
quite ten months of the year — are more than twice 
what they were in the whole of last year. 

Time is on our side. Our shipbuilding is in- 
creasing. We have laid down plans and made ar- 
rangements by which we can turn out next year 
four times what we turned out last year. America 
is doing the same. 



« 



198 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

Keep Together. 

To win through you must last out. What must 
we do ? Husband our resources to last through the 
trying interval — and it is very trying — until Rus- 
sia recovers and America is ready. Save money, 
save food, save in energy, save in luxuries, save 
in labour, and increase production in every direc- 
tion. Above all let us cultivate patience, endur- 
ance, steadfastness. Waiting means winning. Let 
us keep together. Beware of people who try to 
sow dissension, distrust, suspicion, disunion. The 
enemy, beaten on most of the battlefields, is organ- 
ising with deadly care and ingenuity an offensive 
behind the lines. I know what I am talking about. 
See what has happened in France — they dis- 
covered it in time — and look out for Boloism in 
all its shapes and forms. It is the latest and 
most formidable weapon in the German armoury. 
Dissension among ourselves will be fatal to any 
and every campaign. Wait aid have patience, 
endurance, concentration, unity. Personal and 
sectional differences, suspicions, resentments, 
must be forgotten, or at any rate postponed ; this 
is no time to talk of parties; there must be one 
party and that is the nation. Let us help to de- 
fend the nation, the State, the Allied Governments 
— ^America, France, Italy, Russia — resist the at- 
tempts to sow mistrust among us and seek to 
shake our nerves, keep steady and we shall win. 



\ 



A NATION'S THANKS. 

EXTRACTS FROM A SPEECH DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF 
COMMONS, OCTOBER 29tH, 1917. 

I BEG to move * * That the thanks of this House be 
given to the officers, petty officers, and men of the 
Navy for their faithful watch upon the seas dur- 
ing more than three years of ceaseless danger and 
stress, while guarding our shores and protecting 
from the attacks of a barbarous foe the commerce 
upon which the victory of the Allied Cause de- 
pends. 

* ^ That the thanks of this House be given to the 
officers, non-commissioned officers and men of the 
British Armies in the field, and also to the women 
in the medical and other services auxiliary there- 
to, for their unfailing courage and endurance in 
defending the right, amid sufferings and hard- 
ships unparalleled in the history of war, and for 
their loyal readiness to continue the work to which 
they have set their hands until the liberty of the 
world is secure. 

^^That the thanks of this House be accorded to 
the gallant troops from the Dominions Overseas, 
from India, and from the Crown Colonies who 
have travelled many thousands of miles to share 
with their comrades from the British Isles in the 
sacrifices and triumphs of the battlefield, and to 

199 



200 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

take their full part in the struggle for human free- 
dom. 

^ ^ That the thanks of this House be accorded to 
the officers and men of the Mercantile Marine for 
the devotion to duty with which they have con- 
tinued to carry the vital supplies to the Allies 
through seas infested with deadly perils. 

^ ^ That this House doth acknowledge with grate- 
ful admiration the valour and devotion of those 
who' have offered their lives in the service of their 
country, and tenders its sympathy to their rela- 
tives and friends in the sorrows they have sus- 
tained. ' ' 

The Navy. 

Even had I the leisure, which I certainly have 
not in these terrible times, especially in the 
anxiety of the last two or three days, I feel that I 
could not do justice to this great theme, but the 
deeds which are referred to in the Resolution are 
so well known and have won universal admiration 
and gratitude, not merely from every member of 
this House but from every subject of His Majesty, 
that I feel that no words are necessary in order 
to commend it to the acceptance of any body of 
Britishers throughout the world. Taking the first 
paragraph in the Resolution, that which refers 
to the British Navy, the enormous magnitude of 
our Army, the fact that it has representatives in 
millions of homes in the country, and the dazzling 
record of its great achievements, may in some re- 
spects have obscured the service which the British 



A NATION'S THANKS 201 

Navy has rendered to this conntry and to its Al- 
lies. The British Navy is like one of those in- 
ternal organs, essential to life, but of the existence 
of which we are not conscious until something 
goes wrong. The Navy is taken for granted. In 
this war the British Navy has been the anchor of 
the Allied cause. If it lost its hold the hopes of 
the Alliance would be shattered. To realise the 
power and might of the British Navy and how 
essential a part it has played in this great strug- 
gle, one has only to imagine for a moment what 
would have happened, not if we had not the com- 
mand of the sea at the beginning of the war, but 
if the British Navy had been defeated even a 
year ago and the sceptre of the seas had been 
snatched by our foes. Our armies in France, in 
Mesopotamia, in Salonika, and in Egypt would 
have languished and finally vanished for lack of 
support in men and material. France, deprived 
not merely of our support but of the material as- 
sistance which the British Navy enables us still 
to get from abroad, would be unable probably to 
defend herself against the overwhelming hordes 
of the foe. Italy, deprived at home of her am- 
munition and of food, would have fallen a ready 
prey to her fierce and vindictive enemies, which 
she has not done yet and will not do. Eussia, cut 
off on the east and the west, would indeed have 
been defenceless. I have no hesitation in saying 
that but for the British Navy overwhelming dis- 
aster would have fallen on the Allied cause. Prus- 
sia would have been the insolent mistress of 



202 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

Europe, and througli Europe, of the world. 
Never in the whole of the affairs of the world has 
the British Navy been a more potent and a more 
beneficent influence in the affairs of men. What 
has it accomplished? In spite of hidden foes, as 
well as open attack, in spite of legitimate naval 
warfare and in spite of black piracy, it has pre- 
served the highway of the seas for Britain and 
her Allies. 

^ * 9p ^l * 



The Mercantile Marine. 

As to the smaller craft of the Fleet, their work 
and peril never ends. They are numbered by the 
thousand, and their hardships and dangers are 
barely realised, but through their action security 
and plenty are enjoyed by the population of these 
Islands. They patrol the seas from the icy waters 
of the Arctic Ocean to the stormy floods of Ma- 
gellan. There is not an ocean, a sea, a bay, a gulf 
— there is not an estuary used for commerce which 
is not patrolled by the ships of the British Navy. 
How dangerous a task it is the casualty lists pro- 
claim, because in proportion to their numbers 
the dead are equal to those of the British Army. 
Through it all the command of the sea has been 
maintained. I am glad that in this respect special 
recognition is accorded to the officers and men of 
the mercantile marine. It is a great distinction 
for any civilian body to be placed in the same 
category as the soldiers of the British Army and 



A NATION'S THANKS 203 

the sailors of the British Navy, but the officers 
and men of the British mercantile marine have 
won that distinction. Seamanship at best is a 
comfortless and a cheerless calling. I remember 
that when I occupied the office which is now held 
by my right hon. friend (Sir A. Stanley), as Presi- 
dent of the Board of Trade, the concern of the 
Department at that time was the difficulty in get- 
ting men to engage in this avocation, and as the 
standard of living improved it was impossible 
almost to persuade men to pursue a trade so full 
of peril and so devoid of comfort. That was in 
time of peace. What is it now I During the war 
the strain, the hardship, the terror, the peril, have 
increased manifold. Piracy is more rampant and 
ruthless than it has ever been in the history of the 
world. This is a new terror added to those of the 
deep. 

The risks of the navigator have increased in 
every direction. Lighthouses which were there 
to warn the mariner against imminent peril are, 
many of them, dark. Ships have to tear at full 
speed through fog and through storm to avoid 
worse dangers, and the ceaseless watch has now 
a new and more terrible meaning. And not merely 
in the daylight — the sailor has to spear the dark 
for objects hardly visible on the surface of the 
seas, even in sunlight ; and yet life depends upon 
observing those objects in time. Then when the 
blow comes from the invisible foe they are faced 
with conditions which would make the stoutest 
heart pall. The mariner is left with the surging 



204 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

seas around Mm, scores of miles from a friendly 
shore. And yet amongst those who go down to 
the deep in ships there has not been found one 
man who failed to return. I have made inquiries, 
and I am told on all hands that the men return 
with greater alacrity than in times of peace. Men 
torpedoed twice, thrice, seven times, lose no time 
in seeking another ship, hardly wait for their pa- 
pers before they return, because they realise that 
in these times their country cannot spare one man 
or one hour of time. 

This is no time to dwell upon the dark deeds 
of our foes on the sea; but they are all in the 
reckoning. What has struck me with regard to the 
sailors is this : that they have no fear of danger. 
There is not one of them who shirks it ; but they 
abhor the degradation of seamanship involved in 
these actions and the dishonour to the traditions 
of a noble calling. That is why the sailor stead- 
fastly refuses to have any traffic with men who are 
guilty of such conduct, or of sanctioning it, until 
the stain is wiped out. 

The Fishermen. 

I would like to say a word about our fishermen. 
Their contribution has been a great one. Sixty 
per cent, of our fishermen are in the Naval Serv- 
ice. Their trawlers are engaged in some of the 
most perilous tasks that can be entrusted to 
sailors. There is mine-sweeping, a dangerous oc- 
cupation often ending in disaster. The number 



A NATION'S THANKS 205 

of mines they have swept is incredible, and if they 
had not done this Britain would now have been 
blockaded by a ring of deadly machines anchored 
round our shores. But their services have not 
been confined to this work. You find their trawlers 
patrolling the seas everywhere protecting ships, 
and not merely around the British Isles. You find 
these fishing trawlers in the Mediterranean. 
These men surely deserve the best thanks that we 
can accord them for the services which they have 
rendered. 

I should like to give the House one or two illus- 
trations of the way in which these fishermen have 
faced these new perils. Here is one case given to 
me by the Admiralty. A trawler was attacked 
by the gunfire of a German submarine. Though 
armed only with a three-pounder gun and out- 
ranged by her opponents she refused to haul down 
her flag, even when the skipper had both legs shot 
off and most of the crew were killed or injured. 
^^ Throw the confidential books overboard and 
throw me after them,'' said the skipper, and, re- 
fusing to leave his ship when the few survivors 
took to the boat, he went down with his trawler. 
There is another case of an armed trawler escort- 
ing a number of fishing vessels. Attacked by 
submarines, outranged, the main boom broken, 
the funnel down, the wheelhouse blown up, the 
steering gear disabled, many of the men killed, the 
ship sinking, they patched her up with canvas; 
she goes on fighting, and when she ultimately goes 
down the fishing fleet is safe in port. These are 



206 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

not men trained for war. These are fishermen; 
but this is the spirit that has animated our sailors 
whether in the Navy or in the Mercantile Marine 
or our fishing fleets. Never have British sailors, 
whether in the Navy or in the auxiliary services, 
shown more grit. Never have they rendered 
greater service to their native land or to hu- 
manity. For their courage, for their resolution, 
for the service they have rendered and for the 
resource they have shown, I invite the House in 
this Resolution to thank them, officers and men. 

The Old Army. 

I come now to the part of the Resolution which 
deals with the Army. Our Expeditionary Force 
numbered at the beginning of the war 160,000 
men. Our Expeditionary Forces to-day number 
over 3,000,000 — probably the greatest feat of 
military organisation in the history of the world. 
It never could have been accomplished but for 
the heroism and self-sacrifice of the old Army — 
the old Army, the finest body of troops in the 
world at that time, more highly trained, more dis- 
ciplined, more perfect in physique than any other. 
It saved Europe. In the retreat from Mons it de- 
layed overwhelming hordes of the enemy, and 
at the Marne helped to roll back the invader. But 
more than all, the great first battle of Ypres was 
one of the decisive battles of the world. With 
unparalleled tenacity and sacrifice it held su- 
perior forces for weeks — ^held them finally. The 



A NATION'S THANKS 201 

enemy superior in numbers and material; our 
troops short of heavy artillery and ammunition, 
with no reserves. Every man was put in, cavalry- 
men, cooks, drivers, servants, and through the 
individual efforts of officers and men, iron dis- 
cipline, dogged determination, the Army held out 
to the last and saved us from disaster. By the 
end of November France was saved, and Europe ; 
and there was hardly a man left out of the old 
Army. One division went into battle 12,000 
strong. It came out 3,000. Of 400 officers only 
fifty were left — ^in one battle. The old Army is 
the A^-my that gathered the spears of the Prus- 
sian legions into its breast, and in perishing saved 
Europe. No sacrifice in the history of the world 
has had greater results, and those seven divisions 
have a unique position in history and in the an- 
nals of the British Army. 

The Territorials, 

Then after that came the dreary winter and 
spring of 1914 and 1915. Most of the old veterans 
gone ! And here let me say a word for the Ter- 
ritorials who came to the rescue. Old Army gone ; 
New Army not ready; and somebody had to oc- 
cupy water-logged trenches. Somebody had to 
stand torrents of shot and shell from well- 
equipped artillery, with orders that only two or 
three shells could be spared for our guns. Some- 
body had to do that for months while the New 
Army was getting ready; and the Territorials 



WS THE GREAT CRUSADE 

fought with the ardour of recruits in their first 
charge; yea, and with the steadiness of veterans 
in their hundredth fight! And let me say one 
word here — and I am glad to say it — ^we owe a debt 
of gratitude to the man who created that organisa- 
tion which came to the rescue of the Empire at 
such a critical hour. 



The New Arm/g, 

Now we come to our New Army, who occupy the 
battle line from the German Ocean to the Persian 
Gulf. The raising and training of that Arn: / was 
an unexampled feat, and will always be associated 
with the name, the great name, of Lord Kitchener. 
I could not even pretend to give a summary of 
their achievements. We know, we have heard, 
many descriptions of battles, and all I can say is 
that it fills us with a sense of swelling pride that 
we should belong to the race that has produced 
such men. There has been nothing comparable to 
the sustained courage displayed by the British 
soldier in this war. In previous wars you had 
great, you had fierce, battles, which lasted for 
hours, not many of them lasting for days. Those 
have been the great examples in history ; and then 
you had long intervals of marching and prepara- 
tion. Now you have battles that last not for 
hours, not for days or for weeks, but battles that 
last for months. Never has British courage been 
put to so terrible a test; never has it endured it 
so triumphantly. When I read of the conditions 



A NATION'S THANKS 209 

under which our gallant soldiers fight I marvel 
that the delicate and sensitive mechanism of the 
human nerve and the human mind can endure 
them without derangement. The campaigns of 
Stonewall Jackson fill us with admiration and with 
wonder. How that man of iron led his troops 
through the mire and the swamps of Virginia! 
But his men were never called upon to lie for 
days and nights in morasses under ceaseless 
thunderbolts from a powerful artillery, and then 
march into battle through an engulfing quagmire 
under a hailstorm of machine-gun fire. That is 
what our troops have gone through. 

They were confronted with the finest Army in 
the world — the men trained for years, the officers 
instructed and prepared for this hour. Our men, 
with a few months' training, our officers in the 
main taken from counting houses, factories, 
schools and colleges. Their generals, accustomed 
to handle scores and hundreds of thousands of 
men in great manoeuvres, while ours at the best 
were only afforded the opportunity of handling a 
few thousands. And yet these men with this 
training, with these scant opportunities, are bring- 
ing to defeat veteran armies, entrenched in for- 
midable positions. We really owe a debt of the 
deepest thanks to this great Army. I can only 
barely refer to their achievements in other things. 
In Salonika they have had few opportunities for 
glory. They arrived too late to save Serbia, but 
they have faced the malaria of summer and the 
piercing cold of winter, and they have borne them 



glO THE GREAT CRUSADE 

all with spirit and good cheer, because no country 
has ever had more cheerful heroes than we have. 
In Mesopotamia there is a record of heroism — 
the way they endured the disasters of the earlier 
months, the brilliant way in which they retrieved 
those disasters, re-establishing British prestige 
throughout the East. In Africa, under most try- 
ing conditions of climate — everywhere — these 
men have behaved in a way which is worthy of 
the great country to which they belong, and of 
the record of the great Army in which they are 
serving. 

^ tP ^ w tF 

The Dominions, 

I must say a word now about the Dominions. 
They have contributed between 700,000 and 800,- 
000 men. What does that mean? — fiYe times the 
number of our Expeditionary Force. And what 
a contribution! How well they have fought, the 
citizen armies! The ready and resourceful cour- 
age of the Canadians — ^how it saved France and 
the British Army at the second battle of Ypres! 
How, on the heights of Vimy, they swept the foe 
from the positions where they had defied the 
greatest armies of the Allies for two or three 
years ! And then the men of the Southern Seas, 
of Australia and New Zealand — ^the dash and the 
tenacity which enabled them first to capture the 
precipitous rocks of Anzac, and to cling to them 
for months ; to capture Pozieres and to hold BuUe- 



A NATION'S THANKS 211 

court; the men who came in smaller contingents 
from South Africa, clearing Delville Wood; and 
the noble sacrifices of the men of Newfoundland. 
I could not even give a catalogue of their achieve- 
ments without detaining the House beyond the 
limits. And then there is India. How bravely, 
how loyally she has supported the British arms ! 
The memory of the powerful aid which she will- 
ingly accorded in the hour of our trouble will not 
be forgotten after the war is over, and when the 
affairs of India come up for examination and for 
action. Then our Colonies throughout the world, 
how they helped in men and assisted us with 
labour! Never has the British Empire shown 
greater and more effective unity. It was regarded 
as a dream by many; now it is a fact — a powerful 
fact, fashioning the history of the world and the 
destinies of men. 



The Air Service. 

It would be invidious if I were to attempt to dis- 
tinguish between the various arms of the Serv- 
ice — our splendid Infantry who have borne the 
brunt of the battle, our Cavalry, and our Artil- 
lery, who have lost more heavily, perhaps, in this 
war than in any war ever waged. The mere fact 
that we have the Artillery is in itself an achieve- 
ment. Who would have believed — ^when you 
thought it took years to train gunners — ^that in a 
few months we would turn out Artillery the pre- 
cision of whose fire is at once the admiration and 



gl2 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

terror of the foe. But, amongst all these, I may be 
permitted to mention one arm of the Service which 
has appeared for the first time in this great war — 
I mean the Air Service. I am sure the House 
would like special mention to be made of our Air 
Service. The heavens are their battlefield; they 
are the Cavalry of the clouds. High above the 
squalor and the mud, so high in the firmament that 
they are not visible from earth, they fight out the 
eternal issues of right and wrong. Their daily, 
yea, their nightly struggles, are like the Miltonic 
conflict between the winged hosts of light and of 
darkness. They fight the foe high up and they 
fight him low down; they skim like armed swal- 
lows, hanging over trenches full of armed men, 
wrecking convoys, scattering infantry, attacking 
battalions on the march. Every flight is a ro- 
mance; every report is an epic. They are the 
knighthood of this war, without fear and without 
reproach. They recall the old legends of chivalry, 
not merely by the daring of their exploits, but 
by the nobility of their spirit, and, amongst the 
multitudes of heroes, let us think of the chivalry 
of the air. 

The Chaplains and the Medical Service. 

I do not think we ought to pass by the chap- 
lains in the Army. They have sustained their 
losses and have done their duty manfully, coura- 
geously and tenderly. When you come to the Medi- 
cal Service, the men and the women, they have 



A NATION'S THANKS 213 

never shown greater courage, knowledge and ex- 
perience. Thousands of them have devoted them- 
selves — devotion is the right word — to the cur- 
ing of the wounded and the healing of the sick. 
Great consultants have given up princely incomes 
and volunteered for this service. Wounds have 
been cured which before the war were regarded 
as fatal, and I may give an illustration, and only 
one illustration, of the services they have rendered 
in saving life, not merely by their curing ex- 
pedients, but by the precautions they have taken. 
In the South African War, I believe, 50,000 men 
died of typhoid. In France, out of our gigantic 
Army, during the whole three years of the war, 
only 3,000 have fallen victims to this disease. We 
owe thanks to the medical profession. They have 
suffered; hundreds have been killed and many 
more hundreds wounded. We should also thank 
the women, our trained and untrained nurses, 
whose tenderness and care for the wounded have 
earned thanks from the lips of hundreds of thou- 
sands of poor men whose lives have been saved, 
and who have been spared much suffering through 
their tender ministration. They have not escaped 
perils. Many have been killed by shell-fire, many 
of them drowned in hospital ships sunk with the 
sign of the Eed Cross. We all owe them a debt 
of gratitude. 



The last paragraph in the Resolution is one I 
must say a word about, and it will be brief. There 



gl4 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

are hundreds of thousands of sorrowing men and 
women in this land on account of the war. Their 
anguish is too deep to be expressed or to be com- 
forted by words, but, judging the multitudes whom 
I know not by those I do know, there is not a 
single one of them who would recall the valiant 
dead to life at the price of their country ^s dis- 
honour. The example of these brave men who 
have fallen has enriched the life and exalted the 
purpose of all people. You cannot have 4,000,000 
of men in any land who voluntarily sacrificed 
everything the world can offer them in obedience 
to a higher call without ennobling the country 
from which they sprang, and the fallen, whilst 
they have illumined with a fresh lustre the glory 
of their native land, have touched with a new dig- 
nity the households which they left for the battle- 
field. There will be millions who will come back 
and live to tell children now unborn how a genera- 
tion before in England, Scotland, Ireland, and 
Wales, and in the ends of the earth, the men of 
our race were willing to leave ease and comfort 
to face privation, torture, and death to win pro- 
tection for the weak and justice for the oppressed. 
There are hundreds of thousands who will never 
come back. For them there will be for ages to 
come sacred memories in a myriad of homes, of 
brave, chivalrous men who gave up their young 
lives for justice, for right, for freedom in peril. 
This Resolution means that the greatest Empire 
on earth, through this House, thanks the living 
for the readiness with which they obeyed its sum- 



A NATION'S THANKS ^15 

mons and the gallantry with which they supported. 
its behests. It also means that this great Em- 
pire, through this House, enters each home of the 
heroic dead, grasps the bereaved by the hand, 
and says, ^^The Empire owes you gratitude for 
your share of the sacrifice as well as for theirs, 
partakes in your pride for their valour, and in 
your grief for their falL" 



THE CO-ORDINATION OF MILITARY EFFORT. 

SPEECH DELIVERED IN PARIS ON THE SETTING UP OP THE 
SUPREME ALLIED WAR COUNCIL, NOVEMBER 13tH, 1917. 

I MUST claim your indulgence for taking up the 
time of so many men who hold great and re- 
sponsible positions in the State and the Legis- 
lature at a moment when they can ill spare from 
the conduct of important affairs time for listen- 
ing to speeches. My only apology is that I have 
important practical considerations to submit to 
you, which affect not merely the future of your 
own country and of mine, but the destiny of the 
world. I have one advantage in speaking of this 
war, in that I am almost the only Minister in any 
land, on either side, who has been in it from the 
beginning to this hour. I therefore ought to know 
something about the course of events and their 
hidden causes. Of both I want to say something 
to you to-day. 

My friend and comrade, M. Painleve, has ex- 
plained to you the important decision taken by 
the Governments of France, Italy, and Great 
Britain in setting up a Supreme Council of the 
Allies whose forces operate in the West to en- 
sure the united direction of their efforts on that 
front. As he has already explained, that Coun- 
cil will consist of the leading Ministers of the Al- 

216 



MILITARY EFFORT 217 

lied countries, advised by some of their most 
distinguished soldiers, and the choice which has 
already been made by these countries of their ex- 
perts proves that the Governments mean this 
Council to be a real power in the co-ordination of 
their military effort. 

Unfortunately, there was no time to consult 
America and Russia before setting up this Coun- 
cil. The Italian disaster and the need of imme- 
diate action to repair it rendered it essential that 
we should make a start with the Powers whose 
forces could be drawn upon for action on the 
Italian front. But in order to ensure the com- 
plete success of this great experiment — an ex- 
periment the success of which I believe to be es- 
sential to victory for the Allied cause — it is nec- 
essary that all our great Allies should be repre- 
sented in its deliberations, and I look forward 
with confidence to securing the agreement of those 
two great countries and to their co-operation in 
the work of this Council. 

There are two questions which may be asked 
with reference to the step which we have taken. 
Why are we taking it now? That is easy to an- 
swer. The second question is more difficult to find 
a satisfactory answer for — ^Why did we not take 
it before? 

I propose to answer both. In regard to the first 
question, the events of the war have demonstrated, 
even to the most separatist and suspicious mind, 
the need for greater unity amongst the Allies in 
their war control. The Allies had on their side 



gl8 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

— ^in spite of all that has happened they still have 
at their command — all the essential ingredients 
of victory. They have command of the sea, which 
has never yet failed to bring victory in the end to 
the Power that can hold out. On land they have 
the advantage in numbers, in weight of men and 
material, in economic and financial resources, and 
beyond and above all in the justice of their cause. 
In a prolonged war nothing counts as much as a 
good conscience. This combined with superiority 
ought ere now to have ensured victory for the 
Allies. At least it ought to have carried them 
much further along the road to victory than the 
point which they have yet reached. To the extent 
that they have failed in achieving their purpose, 
who and what are responsible? 

Let us ruthlessly search out the answer to that 
question without undue regard to susceptibilities. 
The fate of the world is at stake and we have no 
right to think of anything but realities. The fault 
has not been with the Navies or with the Armies. 
We all admire the skill of our naval and military 
leaders. We are all enthralled with the valour 
of our sailors and soldiers. The defence of Ver- 
dun will be remembered with amazement and with 
pride until the world grows cold. Yea, and the 
story of the indomitable tenacity which won the 
crests of Passchendaele, after months of conflict 
almost unexampled in its fierce stubbornness, will 
make the mists of my native land ever glow with 
splendour. And let me say this word for the 
Italian Army in its hour of discomfiture : No one 



MILITARY EFFORT gl9 

can look at those frontier mountains without a 
thrill of respect for the gallantry that once 
stormed them in face of the entrenched legions of 
Austria. 

Let us also be just to Russia. Russia is suf- 
fering from a violent fever, into which she has 
been driven by conditions of atrocious misgovern- 
ment. She is making a great struggle, and 
through fluctuations she is winning her way to 
steadier and cleaner health than she has ever yet 
enjoyed. She now lies stricken through no fault 
of her own. Let us not forget what she did in the 
early hours of the war, when her heroic sacrifice 
helped to save the West, in France and in Italy, 
from the cruel dominion of the Prussian. And 
there are the heroic little nations who have lost 
their lands. Let us not forget their gallantry, 
their sacrifice. 

No, the fault has not been with the armies. It 
has been entirely due to the absence of real unity 
in the war direction of the Allied countries. We 
have all felt the need for it. We have all talked 
about it. Y/e have passed endless resolutions re- 
solving it. But it has never yet been achieved. In 
this important matter we have never passed from 
rhetoric into reality, from speech into strategy. 

In spite of all the resolutions there has been no 
authority responsible for co-ordinating the con- 
duct of the war on all fronts, and in the absence 
of that central authority each country was left to 
its own devices. We have gone on talking of the 
Eastern front and the Western front and the 



220 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

Italian front and the Salonika front and the 
Egyptian front and the Mesopotamia front, for- 
getting that there is but one front with many 
flanks ; that with these colossal armies the battle- 
field is continental. 

As my colleagues here know very well, there 
have been many attempts made to achieve 
strategic unity. Conferences have been annually 
held to concert united action for the campaign of 
the coming year. Great generals came from many 
lands to Paris with carefully and skilfully pre- 
pared plans for their own fronts. In the absence 
of a genuine Inter-Allied Council of men re- 
sponsible as much for one part of the battlefield 
as for another there was a sensitiveness, a deli- 
cacy about even tendering advice, letting alone 
support for any sector other than that for which 
the generals were themselves directly responsible. 
But there had to be an appearance of a strategic 
whole, so they all sat at the same table and, 
metaphorically, took thread and needle, sewed 
these plans together, and produced them to a sub- 
sequent civilian conference as one great strategic 
piece ; and it was solemnly proclaimed to the world 
the following morning that the unity of the Allies 
was complete. 

That unity, in so far as strategy went, was pure 
make-believe ; and make-believe may live through 
a generation of peace — ^it cannot survive a week 
of war. It was a collection of completely inde- 
pendent schemes pieced together. Stitching is not 
strategy. So it came to pass that when these 



MILITARY EFFORT 221 

plans were worked out in the terrible realities of 
war ttie stitches came out and disintegration was 
complete. 

I know the answer that is given to an appeal for 
unity of control. It is that Germany and Austria 
are acting on interior lines, whereas we are on 
external lines. That is no answer. That fact 
simply affords an additional argument for unifica- 
tion of effort in order to overcome the natural 
advantages possessed by the foe. 

You have only to summarise events to realise 
how many of the failures from which we have 
suffered are attributable to this one fundamental 
defect in the AUied war organisation. We have 
won great victories. When I look at the appalling 
casualty lists I sometimes wish it had not been 
necessary to win so many. Still, on one impor- 
tant part of the land front we have more than held 
our own. We have driven the enemy back. On 
the sea front we have beaten him, in spite of the 
infamy of the submarine warfare. We have 
achieved a great deal ; I believe we should already 
have achieved all if in time we had achieved unity. 

There is one feature of this war which makes it 
unique among all the innumerable wars of the 
past. It is a siege of nations. The Allies are 
blockading two huge Empires. It would have 
been well for us if at all times we had thoroughly 
grasped that fact. In a siege not only must every 
part of the line of circumvallation be strong 
enough to resist the strongest attack which the 
besieged can bring to bear upon it ; more than that, 



S22 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

the besieging army must be ready to strike at the 
weakest point of the enemy, wherever that may be. 
Have we done so? Look at the facts. 

The enemy was cut off by the Allied navies from 
all the rich lands beyond the seas, whence he had 
been drawing enormous stores of food and ma- 
terial. On the east he was blockaded by Eussia, 
on the west by the armies of France, Britain, and 
Italy. But the south, the important south, with 
its gateway to the East, was left to be held by 
the forces of a small country with half the popu- 
lation of Belgium, its armies exhausted by the 
struggles of three wars and with two treacherous 
kings behind, lying in wait for an opportunity to 
knife it when it was engaged in defending it- 
self against a mightier foe. 

"What was the result of this inconceivable 
blunder? What would any man whose mind was 
devoted to the examination of the whole, not 
merely to one part of the great battlefield, have 
expected to happen? Exactly what did happen. 
While we were hammering with the whole of our 
might at the impenetrable barrier in the West, 
the Central Powers, feeling confident that we 
could not break through, threw their weight on 
that little country, crushed her resistance, opened 
the gate to the East, and unlocked great stores of 
com, cattle, and minerals, yea, unlocked the door 
of hope — all essential to enable Germany to sus- 
tain her struggle. 

Without these additional stores Germany might 
have failed to support her armies at full strength. 



MILITARY EFFORT ^^S 

Hundreds of thousands of splendid fighting ma- 
terial were added to the armies which Germany 
can control — added to her and lost to us. Turkey, 
which at that time had nearly exhausted its re- 
sources for war, cut off from the only possible 
source of supply, was re-equipped and resusci- 
tated, and became once more a formidable mili- 
tary Power, whose activities absorbed hundreds 
of thousands of our best men in order to enable 
us at all to retain our prestige in the East. By 
this fatuity this terrible war was given new life. 

Why was this incredible blunder perpetrated? 
The answer is simple. Because it was no one's 
business in particular to guard the gates of the 
Balkans. The one front had not become a reality. 
France and England were absorbed in other 
spheres. Italy had her mind on the Carso. Rus- 
sia had a 1,000-mile frontier to guard, and, even 
if she had not, she could not get through to help 
Serbia, because Rumania was neutral. It is true 
we sent forces to Salonika to rescue Serbia, but, 
as usual, they were sent too late. They were sent 
when the mischief was complete. Half of those 
forces sent in time — ^nay, half the men who fell in 
the futile attempt to break through on the Western 
front in September of that year — ^would have 
saved Serbia, would have saved the Balkans and 
completed the blockade of Germany. 

You may say that is an old story. I wish it 
were. It is simply the first chapter of a serial 
which has been running to this hour. 1915 was 
the year of tragedy for Serbia; 1916 was 



^24i THE GREAT CRUSADE 

the year of tragedy for Rumania. The story is 
too fresh in our memories to make it necessary 
for me to recapitulate events. What am I to say ? 
I have nothing to say but that it was the Serbian 
story almost without a variation. It is incredible 
when you think of the consequences to the Allied 
cause of the Rumanian defeat. The rich corn 
and oil fields of Rumania passed to the foe. Ger- 
many was enabled to escape through to the harvest 
of 1917. The siege of the Central Powers was 
once more raised and this horrible war was once 
more prolonged. This could not have happened 
if there had been some central authority whose 
responsibility was to think out the problem of 
war for the whole battlefield. But once again 
France and England had the whole of their 
strength engaged in the bloody assaults of the 
Somme, Italy was fighting for her life on the 
Carso, Russia was engaged in the Carpathians, 
and there was no authority whose concern it was 
to prepare measures in advance for averting the 
doom of Rumania. 

I you want to appreciate thoroughly how we 
were waging four wars and not one, I will give 
you one fact to reflect upon. In 1916 we had the 
same Conference in Paris and the same appear- 
ance of preparing one great strategic plan. But 
when the military power of Russia collapsed in 
March, what took place? If Europe had been 
treated as one battlefield you might have thought 
that when it was clear that a great army which 
was operating on one flank could not come up in 



MILITARY EFFORT g25 

time, or even come into action at all, there would 
have been a change in strategy. Not in the least. 
Their plans proceeded exactly as if nothing had 
occurred in Russia. Why! Because their plans 
were essentially independent of each other and 
not part of a strategic whole. You will forgive 
me for talking quite plainly because this is no 
time for concealing or for glossing over facts. 
Was is pre-eminently a game where realities 
count. This is 1917. What has happened? I wish 
there had even been some variety in the character 
of the tragedy. But there has been the same dis- 
aster due to the same cause. Russia collapsed. 
Italy was menaced. The business of Russia is to 
look after her own front. It is the concern of 
Italy to look after her own war. ^^Am I my 
brother's keeper!'' Disastrous! Fatal! The 
Italian front is just as important to France and 
Britain as it was to Germany. Germany under- 
stood that in time. Unfortunately we did not. 

It is no use minimising the extent of the dis- 
aster. If you do, then you will never take ade- 
quate steps to repair it. When we advance a 
kilometre into the enemy's lines, snatch a small 
shattered village out of his cruel grip, capture 
a few hundreds of his soldiers, we shout with un- 
feigned joy. And rightly so, for it is the symbol 
of our superiority over a boastful foe and a sure 
guarantee that in the end we can and shall win. 

But what if we had advanced fifty kilometres 
beyond his lines and made 200,000 of his soldiers 
prisoners and taken 2,500 of his best guns, with 



226 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

enormous quantities of ammunition and stores? 
What print would we have for our headlines? 
Have you an idea how long it would take the 
arsenals of France and Great Britain to manu- 
facture 2,500 guns! 

At this moment the extent to which we can pre- 
vent this defeat from developing into a catas- 
trophe depends upon the promptitude and com- 
pleteness with which we break with our past and 
for the first time realise in action the essential 
unity of all the Allied fronts. I believe that we 
have at last learned this great lesson. That is 
the meaning of this Superior Council. If I am 
right in my conjectures then this Council will be 
given real power, the efforts of the Allies will be 
co-ordinated, and victory will await valour. We 
shall then live to bless even the Italian disaster, 
for without it I do not believe it would have been 
possible to secure real unity. Prejudices and sus- 
picions would have kept us apart. Had we learned 
this lesson even three months ago what a differ- 
ence it would have made ! 

I must read to you a message which appeared 
in The Times three days ago from its Washing- 
ton Correspondent. It is a message of the first 
importance, for, in the words of an old English 
saying, ^ ^ Outsiders see most of the game. ' ' And 
these shrewd men in America, calmly observing 
the course of events from a distance of thou- 
sands of miles, have come to conclusions which we 
would have done well to make ours years ago : — 



MILITARY EFFORT ^27 

**It is realised here that delicate questions of 
prestige exist between the great European nations 
engaged in the war, and that this militates against 
quick decisions and effective action when these are 
most needed. It is believed by some of President 
"Wilson's closest advisers that Germany owes 
much of her success in this war to her unity of 
control, which permits the full direction of all 
Teutonic efforts from Berlin. Indeed, it is felt 
here that unless the Allies can achieve a degree 
of co-ordination equal to that which has enabled 
Germany to score her striking, though perhaps 
ineffectual successes, she will be able to hold out 
far longer than otherwise would have been be- 
lieved possible. American military experts be- 
lieve that if the Allied help rushed to General 
Cadoma's assistance to stem the tide of invasion 
had been thrown into the balance when Italy's 
forces were within forty miles of Laibach, the 
Allies would have been able to force the road to 
Vienna. Victory at Laibach would have spelled a 
new Austerlitz, and the magnitude of the prize 
almost within his grasp is believed here to have 
justified General Cadoma in taking the risk of 
advancing his centre too far and temporarily 
weakening his left flan^. The lack of co-operation 
between France, Great Britain, and Italy is 
blamed here for the disaster which ensued, and 
which it is believed would not have occurred if 
one supreme military authority had directed the 
combined operations of the Allies with the sole 
aim of victory without regard to any other con- 
siderations.'^ 

You may say the American estimate of the pos- 
sibilities of the Italian front for the Allies is too 
favourable. Why? It is not for me to express an 



228 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

opinion. I am but a civilian ; but I am entitled to 
point out that the Austrian Army is certainly not 
better than the Italian. On the contrary, when- 
ever there was a straight fight between the Italians 
and the Austrians the former invariably won. 
And the Germans are certainly no better than the 
British and French troops. When there has been 
a straight fight between them we have invariably 
defeated their best and most vaunted regiments. 
And as for the difficulties of getting there, what 
we have already accomplished in the course of 
the last few days is the best answer to that. 

But now I will answer the other question — 
Why was this not said before and why was this 
not done before! I have said it before, and I 
have tried to do it before, and so have some of 
my French colleagues that I see here. For weeks, 
for months, for years, at committees, at confer- 
ences, at consultations, until I almost became 
weary of the attempt. I have written it where it 
may be read and will be read when the time comes. 
I should like to be able to read you the statement 
submitted to the conference in Rome in January 
about the perils and possibilities of the Italian 
front this year, so that you might judge it in the 
light of subsequent events. I feel confident that 
nothing could more convincingly demonstrate the 
opportunities which the Allies have lost through 
lack of combined thought and action. 

We have latterly sought strenuously to improve 
matters by more frequent conferences and consul- 
tations, and there is no doubt that substantial 



MILITARY EFFORT gg9 

improvement lias been effected. As tlie result of 
that conference in Rome and the subsequent con- 
sultations, arrangements were made whicli short- 
ened considerably the period within which aid 
could be given to Italy in the event of her being 
attacked. And if the tragedies of Serbia and Ru- 
mania are not to be repeated — and I feel assured 
that they will not, in spite of the very untoward 
circumstances — it will be because the preparations 
made as the result of the Rome Conference have 
materially affected the situation. But if there had 
been real co-ordination of the military efforts of 
the Allies we should now have been engaged in 
Italy not in averting disaster from our Allies, but 
in inflicting disaster upon our enemies. That is 
why we have come to the conclusion that for the 
cumbrous and clumsy machinery of conferences 
there shall be substituted a permanent council 
whose duty it will be to survey the whole field of 
military endeavour with a view to determining 
where and how the resources of the Allies can be 
most effectually employed. Personally I had made 
up my mind that, unless some change were ef- 
fected, I could no longer remain responsible for 
a war direction doomed to disaster for lack of 
unity. 

The Italian disaster may yet save the alliance, 
for without it I do not believe that even now we 
should have set up a real Council. National and 
professional traditions, prestige, and susceptibili- 
ties all conspired to render nugatory our best 
resolutions. There was no one in particular to 



230 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

blame. It was an inhereiit difficulty in getting so 
many independent nations, so many independent 
organisations, to merge all their individual idio- 
syncrasies and to act together as if they were one 
people. Now that we have set up this Council 
our business is to see that the unity which it repre- 
sents is a fact and not a fraud. 

It is for this reason that I have spoken to-day 
with perhaps brutal frankness, at the risk of much 
misconception here and elsewhere, and perhaps 
at some risk of giving temporary encouragement 
to the foe. This Council has been set up. It has 
started its work. But particularism will again re- 
assert itself, because it represents permanent 
forces deeply entrenched in every political and 
military organisation. And it is only by means 
of public opinion awakened to real danger that 
you can keep these narrow instincts and interests, 
with the narrow vision and outlook which they in- 
volve, from reasserting their dominance and once 
more plunging us into the course of action which 
produced the tragedies of Serbia and Rumania 
and has very nearly produced an even deeper trag- 
edy for Italy. The war has been prolonged by 
sectionalism; it will be shortened by solidarity. 

If this effort at achieving solidarity is made a 
reality, I have no doubt of the issue of the war. 
The weight of men, material, and moral, with all 
its meaning, is on our side. I say so, whatever 
may happen to, or in, Russia. I am not one of 
those who despair of Russia. A Revolutionary 
Russia can never be anything but a menace to 



MILITARY EFFORT 231 

Hohenzollernism. But even if I were in despair 
of Russia, my faith in the ultimate triumph of 
the Allied cause would remain unshaken. The 
tried democracies of France, Great Britain, and 
Italy, with the aid of the mighty democracy of the 
West, must win in the end. Autocracy may be 
better for swift striking, but Freedom is the best 
stayer. We shall win, but I want to win as soon 
as possible. I want to win with as little sacrifice 
as possible. I want as many as possible of that 
splendid young manhood which has helped to win 
victory to live through to enjoy its fruits. 

Unity — not sham unity, but real unity — ^is the 
only sure pathway to victory. The magnitude of 
the sacrifices made by the people of all the Al- 
lied countries ought to impel us to suppress all 
minor appeals in order to attain the common pur- 
pose of all this sacrifice. All personal, all sec- 
tional, considerations should be relentlessly sup- 
pressed. This is one of the greatest hours in the 
history of mankind. Let us not dishonour great- 
ness with pettiness. 

I have just returned from Italy, where I saw 
your fine troops marching cheerily to face their 
ancient foes, marching past battlefields where men 
of their race once upon a time wrought deeds 
which now constitute part of the romance of this 
old world — Areola, Lodi, Marengo. We met the 
King of Italy on the battlefield of Solferino, and 
we there again saw French soldiers pass on to 
defend the freedom which their fathers helped to 
win with their blood. When I saw them in such 



2S2 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

environment I thought that France has a greater 
gift for sacrificing herself for human liberty than 
any nation in the world. And as I reflected on the 
sacrifices she had made in this war for freedom 
of mankind I had a sob in my heart. You as- 
sembled here to-day must be proud that you have 
been called to be leaders of so great a people at so 
great an hour. And as one who sincerely loves 
France, you will forgive me for saying that I 
know that, in the discharge of your trust, you will 
in all things seek to be worthy of so glorious a 
land. 



NO HALFWAY HOUSE. 



■>r 



EXTRACTS PROM A SPEECH DELIVERED AT GRAY'S INN, DE- 
CEMBER 14th, 1917. 






The danger is not the extreme pacifist. I am 
not afraid of him. But I warn the nation to watch 
the man who thinks that there is a halfway honse 
between victory and defeat. There is no halfway 
house between victory and defeat. These are the 
men who think that you can end the war now by 
some sort of what they call pact of peace, by the 
setting up of a League of Nations with conditions 
as to arbitration in the event of disputes, with pro- 
vision for disarmament, and with a solemn cove- 
nant on the part of all nations to sign a treaty 
on those lines, and not merely to abide by it them- 
selves, but to help to enforce it against any na- 
tion that dares to break it. 

That is the right policy after victory. With- 
out victory it would be a farce. Why, we are 
engaged in a war because an equally solemn treaty 
was treated as a scrap of paper. Who would 
sign the new treaty? I presume, among others, 
the people who have so far successfully broken 
the last. Who would enforce the new treaty! I 
presume that they w;ould be the nations that have 

233 



234 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

so far not quite succeeded in enforcing the last. 
To end the war entered on, to enforce a treaty 
without reparation for the infringement of that 
treaty, merely by entering into a new, a more 
sweeping and a more comprehensive treaty, would 
be, indeed, a farce in the setting of a tragedy. 
We must take care not to be misled by mere words 
— * ^ league of nations, " ^ * disarmament, " * * arbitra- 
tion, " * ^ security. ' ' They are all great and blessed 
phrases, but without the vitalising force of vic- 
tory they are nothing but words. You cannot 
wage war with words. You cannot secure peace 
with words. You cannot long cover defeat with 
words. Unless there are deeds behind them, they 
are but dead leaves which the first storm will scat- 
ter and reveal your strangled and abandoned pur- 
pose to the world. 

We ought never to have started unless we 
meant, at all hazards, to complete our task. There 
is nothing so fatal to character as half-finished 
tasks. I can understand, although I cannot respect, 
the attitude of the man — and there are a few — 
who said from the first, * ^ Do not interfere, what- 
ever happens." When you said to them, ** Sup- 
posing the Prussians overrun Belgium?'^ their an- 
swer was, * * Let them overrun Belgium ! " If you 
said, **We promised solemnly to protect Belgium 
against all invaders, and we ought to stand by our 
word," they replied, *^We ought never to have 
given our word." If you said to them, ^*What 
if the Germans trample in the mire our friends 
and neighbours, the free Eepublic of France?" 



"NO HALFWAY HOUSE" 235 

they answered, ^'Tliat is not our business/' If 
you asked, ^'Wliat if they murder innocent peo- 
ple, old and young, male and female, bum cities 
and ravage and outrage before yo;ar eyes T ' in ef- 
fect they said, **Let them perpetrate every crime 
in the calendar so long as it is not done in our 
land. What concern is it of ours? Are we our 
brothers' keepers? Let us not meddle and pro- 
voke anger which might disturb our serenity and 
our comfort." In fact, as one leading journalist 
put it with shameless candour, **Let us rather 
profit by manufacturing goods for both sides ; for 
the assassins as well as for the survivors among 
our friends." 

That is not an exalted line to take, but it is a 
definite and clear line of action, intelligible in con- 
sciences of a certain quality. ** Ourselves first, 
ourselves last, ourselves all the time, and our- 
selves alone. " It is pretty mean, but there are in 
every country men built that way, and you must 
reckon with them in the world. But the man I 
cannot comprehend is the sort of man who, when 
he first saw these outrages, called out, his gener- 
ous soul aflame with righteous wrath, ^^In the 
name of Heaven let us leap in and arrest this 
infamy, and if we fail, then at least let us punish 
the perpetrators so as to make it impossible for 
it to happen again." And having said all this 
and having helped to commit the nation to that 
career of honour, now, before the task is nearly 
accomplished, he suddenly turns round and says, 
*'I have had enough of this. It is time it should 



g36 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

come to an end. Let ns shake hands with the male- 
factor. Let us trade with him to our mutual ad- 
vantage." 

The Terms Germany Offers. 

He is not to be asked for reparation for dam- 
age done. He need not even apologise. He is 
simply invited to enter into a bargain to join with 
you in punching the head of the next man who 
dares to imitate his villainies. And we are told 
that we can have peace now on these terms. Ger- 
many has said so, Austria has said so, the Pope 
has said so. It must, therefore, be true. Of 
course it is true. Why should they refuse peace 
on such terms, especially as it would leave them 
with some of the richest provinces and fairest 
cities of Russia in their pockets ! There are dis- 
tinguished judges present. They are often called 
on to administer justice for offences not unlike 
those committed by Prussia. It is true that rarely 
have they had before them a criminal who, in his 
own person, has committed all these offences — 
murder, arson, rape, burglary, fraud, piracy. 
Supposing next time they try such a case, and are 
tired out by the insistence of the prisoner's advo- 
cate, they were to turn to the offender and say 
**This is a profitless business. We are wasting a 
good deal of money and valuable time. I am 
weary of it. I want to get back to more useful 
work. If I let you off now without any punish- 
ment beyond that which is necessarily entailed 



"NO HALFWAY HOUSE" 237 

in the expenses wHcli you have been put to in de- 
fending your honour, will you promise me to help 
the police to catch the next burglar? If you 
agree to these terms I propose to enrol you now 
as a special constable. I will now formally put 
on your armlet, and, by the way, if you leave me 
your address I will promise to cement the good 
feeling which I wish to prevail in future between 
us, to deal at your store without further inquiry 
as to where, or how, you got the goods. I might 
add that you need not worry to return the stuff 
you stole from your next-door neighboijr on your 
right, as I understand he has withdrawn his claim 
to restoration." 

Now, what do you think would be the effect on 
crime ? It is idle to talk of security to be won by 
such feeble means. There is no security in any 
land without certainty of punishment. There is 
no protection for life, property, or money in a 
State where the criminal is more powerful than 
the law. The law of nations is no exception, and, 
until it has been vindicated, the peace of the world 
will always be at the mercy of any nation whose 
professors have assiduously taught it to believe 
that no crime is wrong so long as it leads to the 
aggrandisement and enrichment of the country to 
which they owe allegiance. There have been many 
times in the history of the world criminal States. 
We are dealing with one of them now. And there 
will always be criminal States until the reward 
of international crime becomes too precarious to 
make it profitable, and the punishment of inter- 



238 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

national crime becomes too sure to make it attrac- 
tive. 

Victory Essential for Security, 

Let there be no doubt as to tlie alternatives witli 
which we are confronted. One of them is to make 
easy terms with the triumphant outlaw, as men 
are driven to do in order to buy immunity in lands 
where there is no authority to enforce law. That 
is one course. It means abasing ourselves in ter- 
ror before lawlessness. It means, ultimately, a 
world intimidated by successful bandits. The 
other is to go through with our divine task of 
vindicating justice, so as to establish a righteous 
and everlasting peace for ourselves and for our 
children. Surely no nation with any regard for 
its interests, for its self-respect, for its honour, 
can hesitate a moment in its choice. Victory is 
an essential condition for the security of a free 
world. All the same, intensely as I realise that, 
if I thought things would get no better the longer 
you fought, not merely would there be no object 
in prolonging the war, but to do so would be in- 
famous. Wantonly to sacrifice brave lives, nay, 
to force brave men to endure for one profitless 
hour the terrible conditions of this war merely 
because statesmen had not the courage to face 
the obloquy which would be involved in agreeing 
to an unsatisfactory peace, would be a black crime 
when we remember what we owe to these gallant 
men. It is because I am firmly convinced that, de- 
spite some untoward events, despite discouraging 



"NO HALFWAY HOUSE" 239 

appearances, we are making steady progress to- 
wards the goal we set in front of us in 1914, that 
I would regard peace overtures to Prussia, at the 
very moment when the Prussian military spirit is 
drunk with boastfulness, as a betrayal of the great 
trust with which my colleagues and I have been 
charged. 

'^Complete the Bridge/' 

Much of the progress we are making may not be 
visible except to those whose business it is to 
search out the facts. The victories of Germany 
are all blazoned forth to the world. Her troubles 
appear in no Press communiques or wireless mes- 
sages, but we know something of these. The 
deadly grip of the British Navy is having its ef- 
fect, and the valour of our troops is making an 
impression which in the end will tell. We are 
laying surely the foundation of the bridge which, 
when it is complete, will carry us into the new 
world. The river is, for the moment, in spate, and 
some of the scaffolding has been carried away, 
and much of the progress we had made seems 
submerged and hidden, and there are men who 
say, *^Let us abandon the enterprise altogether. 
It is too costly. It is impracticable of achieve- 
ment. Let us rather build a pontoon bridge of 
new treaties, league of nations, understandings." 
It might last you some time. It would always be 
shaky and uncertain. It would not bear much 
strain. It would not carry heavy traffic, and the 
first flood would sweep it away. Let us get along 



^0 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

with the pile-driving, and make a real, solid, per- 
manent structure. 



^^ Sanity of Outlook/' 

Meanwhile, let us maintain our steadiness and 
sanity of outlook. There are people who are too 
apt at one moment to get unduly elated at victories 
which are but incidents in the great march of 
events, and the same people get unwholesomely 
depressed by defeats which, again, are nothing 
more than incidents. The very persons who within 
the last fortnight have been organising a nervous 
breakdown in the nation some weeks ago were or- 
ganising a hysterical shout over our victories in 
Flanders and at Cambrai. We were breaking 
through the enemy's barrier. "We were rolling up 
the German armies and clearing them out of Bel- 
gium and the North of France. They remind me 
of a clock I used to pass at one time in my life 
almost every day. It worried me a great deal, 
for whatever the time of the day the finger al- 
ways pointed at 12 o'clock. If you trusted that 
clock you would have believed it was either noon 
or midnight. There are people of that type in 
this war who one moment point to the high noon 
of triumph and the next to the black midnight of 
defeat or despair. There is no twilight. There is 
no morning. They can claim a certain consistency, 
for they are always at 12, but you will find that 
their mainspring in this war is out of repair. We 
must go through all the hours, minute by minute. 



"NO HALFWAY HOUSE" 241 

second by second, with a steady swing, and the 
hour of the dawn will in due time strike. 



The Russian Collapse, 

This is not the most propitious hour. Eussia 
threatens to retire out of the war and leave the 
French democracy, whose loyalty to the word 
they passed to Russia brought on them the hor- 
rors of this war, to shift for themselves. I do 
not wish to minimise in the least the gravity of 
this decision. Had Eussia been in a condition to 
exert her strength this year, we might now be in 
a position to impose fair and rational terms of 
peace. By her retirement she threatens Hohen- 
zollernism and weakens the forces of democracy. 
Her action will not lead, as she imagines, to uni- 
versal peace. It will simply prolong the agony 
of the world, and it will inevitably put her in 
bondage to the military dominance of Prussia. 
But if Eussia persists in her present policy, then 
the withdrawal from the Eastern flank of the en- 
emy of forces which have hitherto absorbed over 
a third of his strength must release hundreds of 
thousands of his troops and masses of material 
to attack Britain, France, and Italy. It is a seri- 
ous addition to our task, which was already for- 
midable enough. It would be folly to underrate 
the danger. It would be equally folly, on the other 
hand, to exaggerate it. The greatest folly of all 
would be not to face it. 



^42 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

America, 

If the Russian democracy liave decided to aban- 
don the struggle against military autocracy, the 
American democracy are taking it up. This is the 
most momentous fact of the year. It has trans- 
posed the whole situation. The Russians are a 
great-hearted people, ^d valiantly have they 
fought in this war, but they have always been — 
certainly throughout this war — the worst organ- 
ised State in Europe, and Britain, with but a third 
of the population of Russia, has been, for the last 
two years, a more formidable military obstacle to 
Germany. Had you asked Germany, not now, but 
even a year ago, which country she would prefer 
to see out of the war, I do not think that there 
would have been any doubt about her answer. But 
what about America? There is no more powerful 
country in the world than the United States of 
America, with their gigantic resources and their 
indomitable people. And if Russia is out, Amer- 
ica is coming in with both arms. If this is the 
worst moment, it is because Russia has stepped 
out and America is only preparing to come in. 
Her army is not ready. Her equipment is not 
complete, her tonnage has not been built. Every 
hour that passes, the gap formed by the retire- 
ment of the Russians will be fiUed by the valiant 
sons of the great American Republic. Soon it will 
be more than filled. Germany knows it. Austria 
knows it. Hence the desperate efforts which they 



"NO HALFWAY HOUSE" 243 

are making to force the issue before America is 
ready. They will not succeed. 



Greater Efforts cmd Greater Sacrifices. 

All the same, these two unfortunate circum- 
stances — the collapse of Russia and the tempo- 
rary defeat of Italy — undoubtedly cast on us a 
heavier share of the burden until the strength of 
America is ready to come underneath to share it. 
We must, therefore, be prepared for greater ef- 
forts, for greater sacrifices. It is not the time to 
cower, to falter, or to hesitate. It is the time for 
the nation to plant its feet more firmly than ever 
on the ground and to square its shoulders to bear 
the increased weight cast on it by events. 

When I talk of the nation I do not mean the 
nation in the abstract, but the millions of individ- 
uals who constitute the nation. If we are to win 
the security which it is the common purpose of all 
sections to attain, every man and every woman 
must be prepared for greater endeavours and 
greater sacrifices. A friend of mine, speaking the 
other day, said that there was not the enthusiasm 
observable which characterised the early days of 
the war. That may be so. If a man undertakes 
a long, arduous and perilous journey you do not 
expect him in the fatiguing hours of the afternoon 
to exhibit the same ardour as when he started in 
the freshness of the morning. But although he 
may not display the same keenness in his demean- 
our, if he is a man of any purpose, his ardour may 



^44 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

be less, but Ms resolution is greater. There is a 
hot zeal and a cold zeal, and the greatest things 
of the world have been accomplished by the lat- 
ter. The will of Britain is as tempered steel. 
There is no sign of a break in it, and, although 
the pressure may increase and will increase, I 
have never doubted that it will bear it all right 
to the end. 



Man-Power and Tonnage. 

We shall have to call on the nation for further 
effort, for further sacrifice, but we shall only do 
so because it is absolutely necessary now. Pre- 
mature sacrifice is waste of moral. There must 
be a further drain on our man-power to sustain, 
until the American Army arrives, the additional 
burden cast on us by the defection of Russia and 
the reverses in Italy. We must have enough men 
to defend the lines which we have held against 
fierce onsets for three years, and to defend them 
against all comers from any quarter of the enemy 
front. We must also have an army of manoeuvre 
which will enable us to appear with the least delay 
at any point of emergency in any part of the colos- 
sal battlefield. There is no ground for panic. 
Even now, after we have sent troops to the assist- 
ance of Italy, the Allies have a marked superior- 
ity of numbers in France and Flanders, and we 
have considerable reserves at home. Much greater 
progress has been made in man-power, especially 
during the last few months, than either friends or 



«N0 HALFWAY HOUSE" 245 

foes realise, but it is not enough to enable ns to 
f aoe new contingencies without anxiety unless we 
take further steps to increase our reserves of 
trained men. 

Before I leave this branch of the subject I must, 
however, add another important consideration. 
While the Cabinet are prepared with recommen- 
dations for raising more men, they are conduct- 
ing a searching investigation, with the assistance 
of our military advisers, into the best methods of 
husbanding the man-power already existing in 
our Armies, so as to reduce the terrible wastage 
of war. 

But the problem of man-power does not end 
with the provision of men for the Armies. It is 
not even the most urgent part of the problem. 
We need more men, not merely for the battle line 
across the seas, but for the battle line in this coun- 
try. We especially need men to help us to solve 
the problems associated with tonnage. You can 
increase tonnage in two ways — by building ton- 
nage and by saving tonnage. Victory is now a 
question of tonnage, and tonnage is victory. Noth- 
ing else can defeat us now but shortage of ton- 
nage. The advent of the United States into the 
war has increased the demand enormously. Ton- 
nage must be provided for the transportation of 
that gigantic new army with its equipment across 
thousands of miles of sea. It is no use raising 
ten million men and equipping them unless you 
get them somewhere in the vicinity of the foe. 
Germany has gambled on America's failure to 



24i6 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

transport her army to Europe, and that is why- 
she is still laughing at the colossal figures of sol- 
diers in training and aeroplanes in course of con- 
struction. We know that the Prussian war lords 
have promised their own people, have promised 
their allies that these formidable masses will never 
find their way into the battle line, and that Presi- 
dent Wilson's speeches, M. Clemenceau's speeches, 
and my speeches will thus be added to the vast 
collection of unredeemed rhetoric with which, ac- 
cording to them, democracies have always deluded 
themselves. 

The Prussian claim is that autocracy alone can 
do things, and that democracies can only talk of 
doing things. The honour of democracy is at 
stake. I have no doubt that here, as in many other 
respects, those who trust the Prussian will be dis- 
illusioned; but both America and ourselves will 
have to strain our resources to the utmost to in- 
crease the tonnage available. The fact that Amer- 
ican tonnage will be absorbed in the transport of 
their own armies makes it necessary that we 
should increase our responsibilities in the matter 
of assisting our French and our Italian Allies to 
transport essential commodities to their shores. 
We must, therefore, increase our tonnage. In spite 
of the fact that we have had less labour available 
in this, the fourth, year of the war than we have 
ever had before, we have increased the shipbuild- 
ing of war and merchant vessels beyond the rec- 
ord of any other war years ; and, as Sir Eric Ged- 
des stated in the House of Commons, we are now 



"NO HALFWAY HOUSE'' 247 

turning ont ships at a rate wMch is above that of 
the record year of shipbuilding in the days of 
peace. 

But we must do more. As the whole future of 
this country and of the world depends on the ef- 
forts Britain and America make this next year to 
increase the output of ships, we are resolved that 
it must, and shall, be done. But we must have 
men ; and to have men we must interfere, even to 
a greater extent than we have done already, with 
the industries which are not absolutely essential 
for the prosecution of the war or to the mainte- 
nance of the life of the nation. And, however 
great the hardships that may be inflicted by this 
interference on the particular trades involved, we 
must ask the nation to support us. And I feel cer- 
tain that the trades themselves will show that pa- 
triotism which has characterised every section of 
the community in this great national endeavour. 

I would only add one further word about ship- 
ping. As I have already pointed out, you can in- 
crease tonnage in two ways — ^by building tonnage 
and by saving tonnage. I have dealt with the first. 
I will say a word about the second. You save ton- 
nage by economising — economising in food, econo- 
mising in dress. You save tonnage by increasing 
the production in this country of material for- 
merly imported from abroad — food, timber, min- 
erals. All this involves additional labour. As to 
food, this year we increased the home production 
by two or three million tons. "We are the only 
belligerents who have succeeded in increasing our 



^8 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

food output during the war, and great credit is due 
to those who by a superb feat of organisation and 
inspiration, have achieved this result. But it is 
essential that we should still further increase the 
home supplies. We must save another three mil- 
lion tons in our food imports next year. This 
means that all those who have land, either as own- 
ers or cultivators, must help us, must without de- 
lay show their readiness to fall in with plans for 
increasing the produce of the land. We shall do 
our best to provide the necessary labour and ma- 
chinery, and I am confident that we shall succeed. 
But all prejudices, all predilections, must be swept 
aside. The nation must be saved. Victory must 
come first. Two or three million tons more food 
raised in this country means two or three million 
tons of shipping made available for strengthening 
the armies in the field. Every ton of food which 
you produce or save in this country is an increased 
weight hurled against the Prussian barrier. 

*' Carry It Through/' 

The nation can help by giving up the things 
which are not essential to victory. We must strip 
even barer for the fight. The nation can help 
in another way — ^by discouraging *^ grousers.'' 
*^ Grousing" undermines moral, and when it is a 
question of holding out, the national moral is vital. 
You cannot expect things to go on smoothly in war 
as they do in peace. You can realise how much 
the ordinary life of the nation has been disturbed 



"NO HALFWAY HOUSE" 24^9 

by the simple transposition of the figures of onr 
War Budget into terms of the amount of national 
energy which its huge sums are intended to pur- 
chase. You cannot take millions of men away from 
the tasks of supplying the peace needs of the 
community without seriously interfering with the 
comforts and amenities of the life of that com- 
munity. The wonder is that the disturbance has 
not been greater, and I feel that we owe much 
gratitude to the experienced and able business 
men who, in various directions, have undertaken 
to organise the resources of the State for war, for 
the services which they have rendered not merely 
in increasing our efficiency for war, but in mini- 
mising the evils and inconveniences of war. 

It is a remarkable fact that, although our im- 
ports have enormously diminished, there is less 
hunger in the land to-day than in August, 1914. 
I ask you to help these men and not to *^ rattle'^ 
them. The strain on them is enormous. Make 
their task easier. There are some people engaged 
in a constant and systematic grumble. The peace 
propaganda is fed with grumbles. These people 
are anxious to break down the national nerve and 
then to rush us into a premature and disastrous 
peace. Let us beware of playing their game. We 
have challenged a sinister power which is menac- 
ing the world with enslavement. It would have 
been better never to have issued the challenge un- 
less we meant to carry it through. A challenged 
power which is not overthrown always becomes 
stronger for the challenge. The people who think 



250 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

that they can begin a new era of peace while the 
Prussian military power is unbeaten are labour- 
ing under a strange delusion. We have all been 
dreaming of a new world to appear when the del- 
uge of war has subsided. Unless we achieve vic- 
tory for the great cause for which we entered this 
war the new world will simply be the old world 
with the heart out of it. 

The old world, at least, believed in ideals. It 
believed that justice, fair play, liberty, righteous- 
ness must triumph in the end; that is, however 
you interpret the phrase, the old world believed in 
God, and it staked its existence on that belief. 
Millions of gallant young men volunteered to die 
for that divine faith. But if wrong emerged tri- 
umphant out of this conflict, the new world would 
feel in its soul that brute force alone counted in 
the government of man; and the hopelessness of 
the dark ages would once more fall on the earth 
like a cloud. To redeem Britain, to redeem Eu- 
rope, to redeem the world from this doom must be 
the settled purpose of every man and woman who 
places duty above ease. This is the fateful hour 
of mankind. K we are worthy of the destiny with 
which it is charged, untold generations of men will 
thank God for the strength which He gave us to 
endure to the end. 



THE WAR AIMS OF THE ALLIES. 

SPEECH DELIVERED TO DELEGATES OF THE TEADES UNIONS, 
AT THE CENTRAL HALL, WESTMINSTER, JANUARY 5tH, 1918. 

When the Govemment invite organised Labour 
in this country to assist them to maintain the 
might of their armies in the field, its representa- 
tives are entitled to ask that any misgivings and 
doubts which any of them may have about the pur- 
pose to which this precious strength is to be ap- 
plied should be definitely cleared, and what is true 
of organised labour is equally true of all citizens 
in this country without regard to grade or avo- 
cation. 

When men by the million are being called upon 
to suffer and die and vast populations are being 
subjected to the sufferings and privations of war 
on a scale unprecedented in the history of the 
world, they are entitled to know for what cause or 
causes they are making the sacrifice. It is only 
the clearest, greatest, and justest of causes that 
can justify the continuance even for one day of 
this unspeakable agony of the nations. And we 
ought to be able to state clearly and definitely not 
only the principles for which we are fighting, but 
also their definite and concrete application to the 
war map of the world. 

We have arrived at the most critical hour in this 

251 



25^ THE GREAT CRUSADE 

terrible conflict, and before any Government takes 
the fateful decision as to the conditions nnder 
which it onght either to terminate or continue the 
struggle, it ought to be satisfied that the con- 
science of the nation is behind these conditions, 
for nothing else can sustain the effort which is 
necessary to achieve a righteous end to this war. 
I have therefore during the last few days taken 
special pains to ascertain the view and the attitude 
of representative men of all sections of thought 
and opinion in the country. Last week I had the 
privilege not merely of perasing the declared war 
aims of the Labour Party, but also of discussing 
in detail with the Labour leaders the meaning and 
intention of that declaration. I have also had an 
opportunity of discussing this same momentous 
question with Mr. Asquith and Viscount Grey. 
Had it not been that the Nationalist leaders are in 
Ireland enga^ged in endeavouring to solve the 
tangled problem of Irish self-government, I should 
have been happy to exchange views with them, but 
Mr. Redmond, speakiag on their behalf, has, with 
his usual lucidity and force, in many of his 
speeches, made clear what his ideas are as to the 
object and purpose of the war. I have also had 
the opportunity of consulting certain representa- 
tives of the great Dominions overseas. 

I am glad to be able to say as a result of all 
these discussions that although the Government 
are alone responsible for the actual language I 
propose using, there is national agreement as to 
the character and purpose of our war aims and 



THE WAR AIMS OF THE ALLIES 253 

peace conditions, and in what I say to you to-day, 
and through you to the world, I can venture to 
claim that I am speaking not merely the mind of 
the Government, but of the nation and of the Em- 
pire as a whole. 

What We Are Not Fighting For, 

We may begin by clearing away some misunder- 
standings and stating what we are not fighting 
for. We are not fighting a war of aggression 
against the German people. Their leaders have 
persuaded them that they are fighting a war of 
self-defence against a league of rival nations bent 
on the destruction of Germany. That is not so. The 
destruction or disruption of Germany or the Ger- 
man people has never been a war aim with us from 
the first day of this war to this day. Most reluc- 
tantly, and, indeed, quite unprepared for the 
dreadful ordeal, we were forced to join in this 
war in self-defence, in defence of the violated pub- 
lic law of Europe, and in vindication of the most 
solemn treaty obligations on which the public sys- 
tem of Europe rested, and on which Germany had 
ruthlessly trampled in her invasion of Belgium. 
We had to join in the struggle or stand aside and 
see Europe go under and brute force triumph over 
public right and international justice. It was only 
the realisation of that dreadful alternative that 
forced the British people into the war. And from 
that original attitude they have never swerved. 
They have never aimed at the break-up of the 



254^ THE GREAT CRUSADE 

German peoples or the disintegration of their 
State or country. Germany has occupied a great 
position in the world. It is not our wish or inten- 
tion to question or destroy that position for the fu- 
ture, but rather to turn her aside from hopes and 
schemes of military domination and to see her de- 
vote all her strength to the great beneficent tasks 
of the world. Nor are we fighting to destroy 
Austria-Hungary or to deprive Turkey of its capi- 
tal, or of the rich and renowned lands of Asia Mi- 
nor and Thrace, which are predominantly Turkish 
in race. 

Nor did we enter this war merely to alter or 
destroy the Imperial Constitution of Germany, 
much as we consider that military autocratic Con- 
stitution a dangerous anachronism in the twentieth 
century. Our point of view is that the adoption of 
a really democratic Constitution by Germany 
would be the most convincing evidence that in her 
the old spirit of military domination had indeed 
died in this war, and would make it much easier 
for us to conclude a broad democratic peace with 
her. But, after all, that is a question for the Ger- 
man people to decide. 

The Enemy ^s War Aims Pronouncements, 

It is now more than a year since the President 
of the United States, then neutral, addressed to 
the belligerents a suggestion that each side should 
state clearly the aims for which they were fight- 



THE WAR AIMS OF THE ALLIES ^55 

ing. We and our Allies responded by the Note of 
January 10, 1917. 

To the President's appeal the Central Empires 
made no reply, and in spite of many adjurations, 
both from their opponents and from neutrals, they 
have maintained a complete silence as to the ob- 
jects for which they are fighting. Even on so 
crucial a matter as their intention with regard to 
Belgium they have uniformly declined to give any 
trustworthy indication. 

On December 25 last, however. Count Czemin, 
speaking on behalf of Austria-Hungary and her 
allies, did make a pronouncement of a kind. It is 
indeed deplorably vague. We are told that ^^it is 
not the intention" of the Central Powers *Ho ap- 
propriate forcibly" any occupied territories or 
^*to rob of its independence" any nation which has 
lost its * apolitical independence" during the war. 
It is obvious that almost any scheme of conquest 
and annexation could be perpetrated within the 
literal interpretation of such a pledge. 

Does it mean that Belgium, Serbia, Montenegro, 
and Eumania will be as independent and as free 
to direct their own destinies as the Germans or 
any other nation? Or does it mean that all man- 
ner of interferences and restrictions, political and 
economic, incompatible with the status and dignity 
of a freed self-respecting people, are to be im- 
posed? If this is the intention, then there will be 
one kind of independence for a great nation and 
an inferior kind of independence for a small naton. 
We must know what is meant, for equality of right 



me THE GREAT CRUSADE 

amongst nations, small as well as great, is one of 
the fundamental issues this country and her Allies 
are fighting to establish in this war. Reparation 
for the wanton damage inflicted on Belgian towns 
and villages and their inhabitants is emphatically 
repudiated. The rest of the so-called *^ offer'' of 
the Central Powers is almost entirely a refusal 
of all concessions. All suggestions about the au- 
tonomy of subject nationalities are ruled out of 
the peace terms altogether. The question whether 
any form of self-government is to be given to 
Arabs, Armenians, or Syrians is declared to be 
entirely a matter for the Sublime Porte. A pious 
wish for the protection of minorities *4n so far as 
it is practically realisable" is the nearest ap- 
proach to liberty which the Central statesmen ven- 
ture to make. 



Government hy Consent. 

On one point only are they perfectly clear and 
definite. Under no circumstances will the *^ Ger- 
man demand" for the restoration of the whole of 
Germany's colonies be departed from. All prin- 
ciples of self-determination, or, as our earlier 
phrase goes, government by consent of the gov- 
erned, here vanish into thin air. 

It is impossible to believe that any edifice of 
permanent peace could be erected on such a foun- 
dation as this. Mere lip service to the formula of 
no annexations and no indemnities or the right of 
self-determination is useless. Before any negotia- 



THE WAR AIMS OF THE ALLIES 257 

tions can ever be begun, the Central Powers must 
realise the essential facts of tbe situation. 

The days of the Treaty of Vienna are long past. 
We can no longer submit the future of European 
civilisation to the arbitrary decisions of a few ne- 
gotiators striving to secure by chicanery or per- 
suasion the interests of this or that dynasty or na- 
tion. The settlement of the new Europe must be 
based on such grounds of reason and justice as 
will give some promise of stability. Therefore it 
is that we feel that government with the consent 
of the governed must be the basis of any terri- 
torial settlement in this war. For that reason 
also, unless treaties be upheld, unless every na- 
tion is prepared at whatever sacrifice to honour 
the national signature, it is obvious that no Treaty 
of Peace can be worth the paper on which it is 
written. 

Restoration and Reparation. 

The first requirement, therefore, always put for- 
ward by the British Government and their Allies, 
has been the complete restoration, political, terri- 
torial, and economic, of the independence of Bel- 
gium and such reparation as can be made for the 
devastation of its towns and provinces. This is no 
demand for war indemnity, such as that imposed 
on France by Germany in 1871. It is not an at- 
tempt to shift the cost of warlike operations from 
one belligerent to another, which may or may not 
be defensible. It is no more and no less than an 



^58 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

insistence that, before there can be any hope for a 
stable peace, this great breach of the public law 
of Europe must be repudiated and, so far as pos- 
sible, repaired. Reparation means recognition. 
Unless international right is recognised by insist- 
ence on payment for injury done in defiance of 
its canons it can never be a reality. Next comes 
the restoration of Serbia, Montenegro, and the oc- 
cupied parts of France, Italy, and Rumania. The 
complete withdrawal of the alien armies and the 
reparation for injustice done is a fundamental 
condition of permanent peace. 

We mean to stand by the French democracy to 
the death in the demand they make for a recon- 
sideration of the great wrong of 1871, when, with- 
out any regard to the wishes of the population, 
two French provinces were torn from the side of 
France and incorporated in the German Empire. 
This sore has poisoned the peace of Europe for 
half a century, and until it is cured healthy con- 
ditions will not have been restored. There can 
be no better illustration of the folly and wicked- 
ness of using a transient military success to vio- 
late national right. 

Bussia. 

I will not attempt to deal with the question of 
the Russian territories now in German occupation. 
The Russian policy since the Revolution has 
passed so rapidly through so many phases that it 
is difficult to speak without some suspension of 



THE WAR AIMS OF THE ALLIES 259 

judgment as to what the situation will be when the 
final terms of European peace come to be dis- 
cussed. Russia accepted war with all its horrors 
because, true to her traditional guardianship of 
the weaker communities of her race, she stepped 
in to protect Serbia from a plot against her in- 
dependence. It is this honourable sacrifice which 
brought not merely Russia into the war, but 
France as well. France, true to the conditions of 
her treaty with Russia, stood by her Ally in a 
quarrel which was not her own. Her chivalrous 
respect for her treaty led to the wanton invasion 
of Belgium; and the treaty obligations of Great 
Britain to that little land brought us into the war. 
The present rulers of Russia are now engaged, 
without any reference to the countries whom Rus- 
sia brought into the war, in separate negotiations 
with their common enemy. I am indulging in no 
reproaches ; I am merely stating facts with a view 
to making it clear why Britain cannot be held ac- 
countable for decisions taken in her absence, and 
concerning which she has not been consulted or 
her aid invoked. No one who knows Prussia and 
her designs upon Russia can for a moment doubt 
her ultimate intention. Whatever phrases she 
may use to delude Russia, she does not mean to 
surrender one of the fair provinces or cities of 
Russia now occupied by her forces. Under one 
name or another — and the name hardly matters — 
these Russian provinces will henceforth be in real- 
ity part of the dominions of Prussia. They will 
be ruled by the Prussian sword in the interests of 



£60 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

Prussian autocracy, and the rest of the people of 
Russia will be partly enticed by specious phrases 
and partly bullied by the threat of continued war 
against an impotent army into a condition of com- 
plete economic and ultimate political enslavement 
to Germany. We all deplore the prospect. The 
democracy of this country mean to stand to the 
last by the democracies of France and Italy and 
all our other Allies. "We shall be proud to fight 
to the end side by side by the new democracy of 
Russia; so will America and so will France and 
Italy. But if the present rulers of Russia take 
action which is independent of their Allies we have 
no means of intervening to arrest the catastrophe 
which is assuredly befalling their country. Rus- 
sia can only be saved by her own people. 

We believe, however, that an independent Po- 
land, comprising all those genuinely Polish ele- 
ments who desire to form part of it, is an urgent 
necessity for the stability of Western Europe. 

Austria-Humgary. 

Similarly, though we agree with President Wil- 
son that the break-up of Austria-Hungary is no 
part of our war aims, we feel that, unless genuine 
self-government on true democratic principles is 
granted to those Austro-Hungarian nationalities 
who have long desired it, it is impossible to hope 
for the removal of those causes of unrest in that 
part of Europe which have so long threatened its 
general peace. 



THE WAR AIMS OF THE ALLIES 261 

. On the same grounds we regard as vital the sat- 
isfaction of the legitimate claims of the Italians 
for union with those of their own race and tongue. 
We also mean to press that justice be done to men 
of Rumanian blood and speech in their legitimate 
aspirations. If these conditions are fulfilled, Aus- 
tria-Hungary would become a Power whose 
strength would conduce to the permanent peace 
and freedom of Europe, instead of being merely 
an instrument to the pernicious military autocracy 
of Prussia that uses the resources of its allies for 
the furtherance of its own sinister purposes. 

Turkey. 

Outside Europe we believe that the same prin- 
ciples should be applied. While we do not chal- 
lenge the maintenance of the Turkish Empire in 
the homelands of the Turkish race with its capital 
at Constantinople — the passage between the Medi- 
terranean and the Black Sea being international- 
ised and neutralised — Arabia, Armenia, Mesopo- 
tamia, Syria, and Palestine are in our judgment 
entitled to a recognition of their separate national 
conditions. 

What the exact form of that recognition in each 
particular case should be need not here be dis- 
cussed, beyond stating that it would be impossible 
to restore to their former sovereignty the terri- 
tories to which I have already referred. 

Much has been said about the arrangements we 
have entered into with our Allies on this and on 



262 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

otlier subjects. I can only say that as new cir- 
cumstances, like the Russian collapse and the sepa- 
rate Russian negotiations, have changed the con- 
ditions under which those arrangements were 
made, we are, and always have been, perfectly 
ready to discuss them with our Allies. 

The Germa/n Colonies. 

With regard to the German colonies, I have re- 
peatedly declared that they are held at the dis- 
posal of a Conference whose decision must have 
primary regard to the wishes and interests of the 
native inhabitants of such colonies. None of those 
territories are inhabited by Europeans. The gov- 
erning consideration, therefore, in all these cases 
must be that the inhabitants should be placed 
under the control of an administration acceptable 
to themselves, one of whose main purposes will be 
to prevent their exploitation for the benefit of Eu- 
ropean capitalists or Governments. The natives 
live in their various tribal organisations under 
chiefs and councils who are competent to consult 
and speak for their tribes and members, and thus 
to represent their wishes and interests in regard 
to their disposal. 

The general principle of national self-determi- 
nation is therefore as applicable in their cases as 
in those of occupied European territories. The 
German declaration, that the natives of the Ger- 
man colonies have, through their military fidelity 
in the war, shown their attachment and resolve 



THE WAR AIMS OF THE ALLIES 263 

under all circumstances to remain with. Germany, 
is applicable not to the German colonies generally, 
but only to one of them, and in that case (German 
East Africa) the German authorities secured the 
attachment, not of the native population as a 
whole, which is and remains profoundly anti-Ger- 
man, but only of a small warlike class from whom 
their Askaris, or soldiers, were selected. These 
they attached to themselves by conferring on them 
a highly privileged position as against the bulk 
of the native population, which enabled these As- 
karis to assume a lordly and oppressive superi- 
ority over the rest of the natives. By this and 
other means they secured the attachment of a very 
small and insignificant minority whose interests 
were directly opposed to those of the rest of the 
population, and for whom they have no right to 
speak. The German treatment of their native 
populations in their colonies has been such, as am- 
ply to justify their fear of submitting the future 
of those colonies to the wishes of the natives them- 
selves. 



Violation of International Law. - 

Finally, there must be reparation for injuries 
done in violation of international law. The Peace 
Conference must not forget our seamen and the 
services they have rendered to, and the outrages 
they have suffered for, the common cause of free- 
dom. 



264 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

Creaiion of an International Organisatiom. 

One omission we notice in the proposal of the 
Central Powers which seems to ns especially re- 
grettable. It is desirable, and indeed essential, 
that the settlement after this war shall be one 
which does not in itself bear the seed of future 
war. But that is not enough. However wisely 
and well we may make territorial and other ar- 
rangements, there will still be many subjects of 
international controversy. Some, indeed, are in- 
evitable. 

The economic conditions at the end of the war 
will be in the highest degree difficult. Owing to 
the diversion of human effort to warlike pursuits, 
there must follow a world-shortage of raw ma- 
terials, which will increase the longer the war 
lasts, and it is inevitable that those countries 
which have control of the raw materials will desire 
to help themselves and their friends first. 

Apart from this, whatever settlement is made 
will be suitable only to the circumstances under 
which it is made, and as those circum,stances 
change, changes in the settlerhent will be called 
for. 

So long as the possibility of dispute between na- 
tions continues, that is to say, so long as men and 
women are dominated by passioned ambition and 
war is the only means of settling a dispute, all 
nations must live under the burden not only of 
having from time to time to engage in it, but of 
being compelled to prepare for its possible out- 



THE WAR AIMS OF THE ALLIES 265 

break. The crushing weight of modern arma- 
ments, the increasing evil of compulsory military 
service, the vast waste of wealth and effort in- 
volved in warlike preparation, these are blots on 
our civilisation of which every thinking individual 
must be ashamed. 

For these and other similar reasons, we are con- 
fident that a great attempt must be made to es- 
tablish by some international organisation an al- 
ternative to war as a means of settling interna- 
tional disputes. After all, war is a relic of bar- 
barism, and just as law has succeeded violence as 
the means of settling disputes between individ- 
uals, so we believe that it is destined ultimately 
to take the place of war in the settlement of con- 
troversies between nations. 



it 



A Just and Lasting Peace.'' 

If, then, we are asked what we are fighting for, 
we reply — as we have often replied — We are fight- 
ing for a just and a lasting peace, and we believe 
that before permanent peace can be hoped for 
three conditions must be fulfilled. 

First, the sanctity of treaties must be re-estab- 
lished; secondly, a territorial settlement must be 
secured based on the right of self-determination 
or the consent of the governed; and, lastly, we 
must seek by the creation of some international 
organisation to limit the burden of armaments and 
diminish the probability of war. 



266 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

On these conditions the British Empire would 
welcome peace, to secure these conditions its peo- 
ples are prepared to make even greater sacrifices 
than those they have yet endured. 



APPENDIX 



APPENDIX 

containing extracts from a previous volume of speeches, 
"through terror to triumph !" 



I. 

extract from preface to "theiough terror to triumph!" 

After tv^elve months of war my conviction is stronger 
than ever that this country could not have kept out of it 
v^ithout imperilling its security and impairing its honour. 
We could not have looked on cynically v^ith folded arms 
whilst the country we had given our word to protect was 
being ravaged and trodden by one of our own co-trustees. 
If British women and children were being brutally de- 
stroyed on the high seas by German submarines, this 
nation would have insisted on calling the infanticide 
Empire to a stern reckoning. Everything that has hap- 
pened since the declaration of war has demonstrated 
clearly that a military system so regardless of good 
faith, of honourable obligations, and of the elementary 
impulses of humanity, constituted a m^enace to civilisa- 
tion of the most sinister character ; and despite the terri- 
ble cost of suppressing it, the well-being of humanity 
demands that such a system should be challenged and 
destroyed. The fact that events have also shown that the 
might of this military clique has exceeded the gloomiest 
prognostications provides an additional argument for its 
destruction. The greater the might, the darker the 
menace. 

Nor have the untoward incidents of the war weakened 

269 



210 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

my faith in ultimate victory — always provided that the 
allied nations put forth the whole of their strength ere it 
is too late. Anything less must lead to defeat. The 
allied countries have an overwhelming preponderance 
in the raw material that goes to the making and equip- 
ment of armies, whether in men, money, or accessible 
metals and machinery. But this material has to be 
mobilised and utilised. It would be idle to pretend that 
the first twelve months of the war has seen this task ac- 
complished satisfactorily. Had the Allies realised in 
time the full strength of their redoubtable and resource- 
ful foes — nay, what is more, had they realised their own 
strength and resources, and taken prompt action to 
organise them, to-day we should have witnessed the 
triumphant spectacle of their guns pouring out a stream 
of shot and shell which would have deluged the German 
trenches with fire and scorched the German legions back 
across their own frontiers. 

What is the actual position? It is thoroughly well 
known to the Germans; and anyone in any land, bellig- 
erent or neutral, who reads intelligently the military 
news, must by now have a comprehension of it. With 
the resources of Great Britain, France, Russia — ^yea, of 
the whole industrial world — at the disposal of the Allies, 
it is obvious that the Central Powers have still an over- 
whelming superiority in all the material and equipment 
of war. The result of this deplorable fact is exactly 
what might have been foreseen. The iron heel of Ger- 
many has sunk deeper than ever into French and Bel- 
gian soil. Poland is entirely German; Lithuania is 
rapidly following. Russian fortresses, deemed im- 
pregnable, are falling like sand castles before the resist- 
less tide of Teutonic invasion. When will that tide re- 
cede ? When will it be stemmed ? As soon as the Allies 
are supplied with abundance of war material. 



APPENDIX 271 

That is why I am recalling these unpleasant facts, be- 
cause I wish to stir my countrymen to put forth their 
strength to amend the situation. To dwell on such 
events is the most disagreeable task that can fall to the 
lot of a public man. For all that, the public man who 
either shirks these facts himself, or does not do his best 
to force others to face them until they are redressed, is 
guilty of high treason to the State which he has sworn 
to serve. 

There has been a great awakening in all the Allied 
countries, and prodigious efforts are being put forth to 
equip the armies in the field. I know what we are doing : 
our exertions are undoubtedly immense. But can we do 
more either in men or material? Nothing but our best 
and utmost can pull us through. Are we now straining 
every nerve to make up for lost time ? Are we getting 
all the men we shall want to put into the fighting line 
next year to enable us even to hold our own ? Does every 
man who can help, whether by fighting or by providing 
material, understand clearly that ruin awaits remiss- 
ness? How many people in this country fully appre- 
hend the full significance of the Russian retreat? For 
over twelve months Russia has in spite of deficiencies in 
equipment absorbed the energies of half the German and 
four-fifths of the Austrian forces. Is it realised that 
Russia has for the time being made her contribution — 
and what a heroic contribution it is! — to the straggle 
for European freedom, and that we cannot for many 
months to come expect the same active help from the 
Russian armies that we have hitherto received? Who 
is to take the Russian place in the fight whilst those 
armies are re-equipping? Who is to bear the weight 
which has hitherto fallen on Russian shoulders? France 
cannot be expected to sustain much heavier burdens 
than those which she now bears with a quiet courage 



272 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

that has astonished and moved the world. Italy is put- 
ting her strength into the fight. "What could she do 
more? There is only Britain left. Is Britain prepared 
to fill up the great gap that will be created when Russia 
has retired to re-arm? Is she fully prepared to cope 
with all the possibilities of the next few months — in the 
West, without forgetting the East? Upon the answer 
which Government, employers, workmen, financiers, 
young men who can bear arms, women who can work in 
factories — in fact, the whole people of this great land, 
give to this question, will depend the liberties of Europe 
for many a generation. 

A shrewd and sagacious observer told me the other day 
that in his judgment the course pursued by this coun- 
try during the next three months would decide the fate 
of this war. If we are not allowed to equip our factories 
and workshops with adequate labour to supply our ar- 
mies, because we must not transgress regulations applica- 
ble to normal conditions; if practices are maintained 
which restrict the output of essential war material; if 
the nation hesitates, when the need is clear, to take the 
necessary steps to call forth its manhood to defend hon- 
our and existence ; if vital decisions are postponed until 
too late; if we neglect to make ready for all probable 
eventualities; if, in fact, we give ground for the accu- 
sation that we are slouching into disaster as if we were 
walking along the ordinary paths of peace without an 
enemy in sight; then I can see no hope: but if we 
sacrifice all we own and all we like for our native land ; 
if our preparations are characterised by grip, resolu- 
tion, and a prompt readiness in every sphere ; then vic- 
tory is assured. 



II. 
"THROUGH TERROR TO TRIUMPH!" 

SPEECH 0]Sr THE WAR, DELIVERED AT THE QUEEN^S HALL, LOinX)^, 
SEPTEMBER 19tH, 1914. 

Why Our National Honour is Involved. 

There is no man who has always regarded the prospect 
of engaging in a great war with greater reluctance and 
with greater repugnance than I have done throughout 
the whole of my political life. There is no man more 
convinced that we could not have avoided it without na- 
tional dishonour. I am fully alive to the fact that every 
nation who has ever engaged in any war has always 
invoked the sacred name of honour. Many a crime has 
been committed in its name ; there are some being com- 
mitted now. All the same, national honour is a reality, 
and any nation that disregards it is doomed. Why is 
our honour as a country involved in this war? Be- 
cause, in the first instance, we are bound by honourable 
obligations to defend the independence, the liberty, the 
integrity, of a small neighbour who has always lived 
peaceably. She could not have compelled us; she was 
weak; but the man who declines to discharge his duty 
because his creditor is too poor to enforce it is a black- 
guard. We entered into a treaty — a solemn treaty — ^two 
treaties — ^to defend Belgium and her integrity. Our 
signatures are attached to the documents. Our signa- 
tures do not stand alone there ; this country was not the 
only country that undertook to defend the integrity of 

273 



274 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

Belgium. Russia, France, Austria, Prussia — ^they are all 
there. Why are Austria and Prussia not performing the 
obligations of their bond ? 



France cmd Belgium in 1870. 

It is suggested that when we quote this treaty it is 
purely an excuse on our part — it is our low craft and 
cunning to cloak our jealousy of a superior civilisation 
that we are attempting to destroy. Our answer is the 
action we took in 1870. What was that ? Mr. Gladstone 
was then Prime Minister. Lord Granville, I think, was 
then Foreign Secretary. I have never heard it laid to 
their charge that they were ever Jingoes. That treaty 
bound us then. We called upon the belligerent Powers 
to respect it. We called upon France, and we called 
upon Germany. At that time, bear in mind, the great- 
est danger to Belgium came from France and not from 
Germany. We intervened to protect Belgium against 
France, exactly as we are doing now to protect her 
against Germany. We proceeded in exactly the same 
way. We invited both the belligerent Powers to state 
that they had no intention of violating Belgian terri- 
tory. What was the answer given by Bismarck ? He said it 
was superfluous to ask Prussia such a question in view 
of the treaties in force. France gave a similar answer. 
We received at that time the thanks of the Belgian peo- 
ple for our intervention in a very remarkable document. 
It is a document addressed by the municipality of Brus- 
sels to Queen Victoria after that intervention, and it 
reads : — 

* * The great and noble people over whose destinies you 
preside has just given a further proof of its benevolent 
sentiments towards our country. . . . The voice of the 



APPENDIX g75 

English nation has been heard above the din of arms, 
and it has asserted the principles of justice and right. 
, Next to the unalterable attachment of the Belgian people 
to their independence, the strongest sentiment which fills 
their hearts is that of an imperishable gratitude." 

That was in 1870. Mark what followed. Three or 
four days after that document of thanks, a French army 
was wedged up against the Belgian frontier, every means 
of escape shut out by a ring of flame from Prussian 
cannon. There was one way of escape. What was that ? 
Violating the neutrality of Belgium. What did they 
do? The French on that occasion preferred ruin and 
humiliation to the breaking of their bond. The French 
Emperor, the French marshals, a hundred thousand gal- 
lant Frenchmen in arms, preferred to be carried captive 
to the strange land of their enemies, rather than dis- 
honour the name of their country. It was the last 
French army in the field. Had they violated Belgian 
neutrality, the whole history of that war would have 
been changed, and yet, when it was the interest of 
France to break the treaty then, she did not do it. 



}> 



'^A Scrap of Paper. 

It is the interest of Prussia to-day to break the treaty, 
and she has done it. She avows it with cynical contempt 
for every principle of justice. She says : ^ ' Treaties only 
bind you when it is your interest to keep them. " ' ' What 
is a treaty?" says the German Chancellor. *^A scrap 
of paper." Have you any £5 notes about you? I am 
not calling for them. Have you any of those neat little 
Treasury £1 notes? If you have, burn them; they are 
only scraps of paper. What are they made of? Rags. 
What are they worth? The whole credit of the British 
Empire. Scraps of paper! I have been dealing with 



276 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

scraps of paper within the last month. One suddenly 
found the commerce of the world coming to a standstill. 
The machine had stopped. Why ? I will tell you. We 
discovered — ^many of us for the first time, for I do not 
pretend that I do not know much more about the ma- 
chinery of commerce to-day than I did six weeks ago, 
and there are many others like me — we discovered that 
the machinery of commerce was moved by bills of ex- 
change. I have seen some of them, wretched, crinkled, 
scrawled over, blotched, frowsy, and yet those wretched 
little scraps of paper move great ships laden with thou- 
sands of tons of precious cargo from one end of the world 
to the other. What is the motive power behind them? 
The honour of commercial men. 

Treaties are the currency of international statesman- 
ship. Let us be fair : German merchants, German trad- 
ers, have the reputation of being as upright and straight- 
forward as any traders in the world, but if the currency 
of German commerce is to be debased to the level of 
that of her statesmanship, no trader from Shanghai to 
Valparaiso will ever look at a German signature again. 
This doctrine of the scrap of paper, this doctrine which 
is proclaimed by Bernhardi, that treaties only bind a 
nation as long as it is to its interest, goes under the root 
of all public law. It is the straight road to barbarism. 
It is as if you were to revoke the Magnetic Pole because 
it was in the way of a German cruiser. The whole navi- 
gation of the seas would become dangerous, difficult and 
impossible ; and the whole machinery of civilisation will 
break down if this doctrine wins in this war. We are 
fighting against barbarism, and there is only one way of 
putting it right. If there are nations that say they will 
only respect treaties when it is to their interest to do so, 
we must make it to their interest to do so for the future. 



APPENDIX ^77 

Germany's Perjury, 

What is their defence ? Consider the interview which 
took place between our Ambassador and the great Ger- 
man officials. When their attention was called to this 
treaty to which they were parties, they said : ' ' We can- 
not help that. Rapidity of action is the great German 
asset." There is a greater asset for a nation than 
rapidity of action, and that is honest dealing. What 
are Germany's excuses? She says Belgium was plot- 
ting against her; Belgium was engaged in a great con- 
spiracy with Britain and with France to attack her. 
Not merely is it not true, but Germany knows it is not 
true. What is her other excuse? That France meant 
to invade Germany through Belgium. That is abso- 
lutely untrue. France offered Belgium five army corps 
to defend her if she were attacked. Belgium said: "I 
do not require them; I have the word of the Kaiser. 
Shall Caesar send a lie?" All these tales about con- 
spiracy have been vamped up since. A great nation 
ought to be ashamed to behave like a fraudulent bank- 
rupt, perjuring its way through its obligations. What 
she says is not true. She has deliberately broken this 
treaty, and we were in honour bound to stand by it. 

Belgium's ^^CrimeJ" 

Belgium has been treated brutally. How brutally we 
shall not yet know. We already know too much. But 
what had she done ? Had she sent an ultimatum to Ger- 
many? Had she challenged Germany? Was she pre- 
paring to make war on Germany ? Had she inflicted any 
wrong upon Germany which the Kaiser was bound to 
redress? She was one of the most unoffending little 
countries in Europe. There she was — peaceable, indus- 



278 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

trious, thrifty, hard-working, giving offence to no one. 
And her cornfields have been trampled, her villages 
have been burnt, her art treasures have been destroyed, 
her men have been slaughtered — ^yea, and her women 
and children too. Hundreds and thousands of her peo- 
ple, their neat, comfortable little homes burnt to the 
dust, are wandering homeless in their own land. What 
was their crime? Their crime was that they trusted to 
the word of a Prussian King. I do not know what the 
Kaiser hopes to achieve by this war. I have a shrewd 
idea what he will get ; but one thing he has made certain, 
and that is that no nation will ever commit that crime 
again. 

"The Bight to Defend Its Homes/' 

I am not going to enter into details of outrages. War 
is a grim, ghastly business at best or worst, and I am 
not going to say that all that has been said in the way 
of outrages must necessarily be true. I will go beyond 
that, and I will say that if you turn two million men — 
forced, conscript, compelled, driven — into the field, you 
will always get amongst them a certain number who 
will do things that the nation to which they belong 
would be ashamed of. I am not depending on these 
tales. It is enough for me to have the story which 
Germans themselves avow, admit, defend and proclaim 
— the burning and massacring, the shooting down of 
harmless people. Why ? Because, according to the Ger- 
mans, these people fired on German soldiers. What 
business had German soldiers there at all? Belgium 
was acting in pursuance of the most sacred right, the 
right to defend its homes. But they were not in uni- 
form when they fired! If a burglar broke into the 
Kaiser's Palace at Potsdam, destroyed his furniture, 
killed his servants, ruined his art treasures — especially 



APPENDIX 279 

those he has made himself — and burned the precious 
manuscripts of his speeches, do you think he would 
wait until he got into uniform before he shot him down ? 
The Belgians were dealing with those who had broken 
into their household. 

But the perfidy of the Germans has already failed. 
They entered Belgium to save time. The time has gone. 
They have not gained time, but they have lost their 
good name. 

The Case of Serbia. 

But Belgium is not the only little nation that has been 
attacked in this war, and I make no excuse for referring 
to the case of the other little nation, the case of Serbia. 
The history of Serbia is not unblotted. Whose history, 
in the category of nations, is unblotted? The first na- 
tion that is without sin, let her cast a stone at Serbia. 
She was a nation trained in a horrible school, but she 
won her freedom with a tenacious valour, and she has 
maintained it by the same courage. If any Serbians 
were mixed up in the assEissination of the Grand Duke, 
they ought to be punished. Serbia admits that. The 
Serbian Government had nothing to do with it. Not 
even Austria claims that. The Serbian Prime Minister 
is one of the most capable and honoured men in Europe. 
Serbia was willing to punish any one of her subjects who 
had been proved to have any complicity in that assassina- 
tion. What more could you expect? 

What were the Austrian demands? Serbia sympa- 
thised with her fellow-countrjmien in Bosnia — that was 
one of her crimes. She must do so no more. Her news- 
papers were saying nasty things about Austria; they 
must do so no longer. That is the German spirit; you 
had it in Zabern. How dare you criticise a Prussian 
official? And if you laugh, it is a capital offence — the 



S80 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

colonel in Zabem threatened to shoot if it was repeated. 
In the same way the Serbian newspapers must not criti- 
cise Austria. I wonder what would have happened if 
we had taken the same line about German newspapers! 
Serbia said: ''Very well, we will give orders to the 
newspapers that they must in future criticise neither 
Austria, nor Hungary, nor anything that is theirs.'' 
Who can doubt the valour of Serbia, when she undertook 
to tackle her newspaper editors? She promised not to 
sympathise with Bosnia ; she promised to write no criti- 
cal articles about Austria; she would have no public 
meetings in which anything unkind was said about 
Austria. 

^^Serhia Faced the Situation with Dignity.'^ 

But that was not enough. She must dismiss from her 
army the officers whom Austria should subsequently 
name— those officers who had just emerged from a war 
where they had added lustre to the Serbian arms. They 
were gallant, brave and efficient. I wonder whether it 
was their guilt or their efficiency that prompted Aus- 
tria's action! But, mark you, the officers were not 
named; Serbia was to undertake in advance to dismiss 
them from the army, the names to be sent in subse- 
quently. Can you name a country in the world that 
would have stood that ? Supposing Austria or Germany 
had issued an ultimatum of that kind to this country, 
saying, "You must dismiss from your Army — and from 
your Navy — all those officers whom we shall subsequent- 
ly name. ' ' Well, I think I could name them now. Lord 
Kitchener would go. Sir John French would be sent 
away; General Smith-Dorrien would go, and I am sure 
that Sir John Jellicoe would have to go. And there is 
another gallant old warrior who would go — ^Lord Rob- 



APPENDIX 281 

erts. It was a difficult situation for a small country. 
Here was a demand made upon her by a great military 
Power that could have put half-a-dozen men in the field 
for every one of Serbia's men, and that Power was sup- 
ported by the greatest military Power in the world. How 
did Serbia behave? It is not what happens to you in 
life that matters; it is the way in which you face it — 
and Serbia faced the situation with dignity. She said 
to Austria: ''If any officers of mine have been guilty, 
and are proved to be guilty, I wiU dismiss them. ' ' Aus- 
tria said: ''That is not good enough for me.'' It was 
not guilt she was after, but capacity. 

Bussia's Turn. 

Then came Russia's turn. Russia has a special re- 
gard for Serbia; she has a special interest in Serbia. 
Russians have shed their blood for Serbian independence 
many a time, for Serbia is a member of Russia's fam- 
ily, and she cannot see Serbia maltreated. Austria 
knew that. Germany knew it, and she turned round to 
Russia and said : " I insist that you shall stand by with 
your arms folded whilst Austria is strangling your lit- 
tle brother to death." What answer did the Russian 
Slav give? He gave the only answer that becomes a 
man. He turned to Austria and said: "You lay hands 
on that little fellow, and I will tear your ramshackle 
Empire limb from limb." And he will do it! 

The Little Nations. 

That is the story of two little nations. The world 
owes much to little nations — and to little men! This 
theory of bigness, this theory that you must have a hig 
Empire, and a hig nation, and a hig man — ^well, long legs 



g82 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

have their advantage in a retreat. Frederick the First 
chose his warriors for their height, and that tradition 
has become a policy in Germany. Germany applies that 
ideal to nations, and will only allow six-foot-two nations 
to stand in the ranks. But ah ! the world owes much to 
the little five-foot-five nations. The greatest art in the 
world was the work of little nations; the most endur- 
ing literature of the world came from little nations; 
the greatest literature of England came when she was a 
nation of the size of Belgium fighting a great Empire. 
The heroic deeds that thrill humanity through genera- 
tions were the deeds of little nations fighting for their 
freedom. Yes, and the salvation of mankind came 
through a little nation. God has chosen little nations 
as the vessels by which He carries His choicest wines 
to the lips of humanity, to rejoice their hearts, to exalt 
their vision, to stimulate and strengthen their faith; 
and if we had stood by when two little nations were 
being crushed and broken by the brutal hands of barbar- 
ism, our shame would have rung down the everlasting 
ages. 

''The Test of Our Faith." 

But Germany insists that this is an attack by a lower 
civilisation upon a higher one. As a matter of fact, the 
attack was begun by the civilisation which calls itself 
the higher one. I am no apologist for Russia: she has 
perpetrated deeds of which I have no doubt her best 
sons are ashamed. What Empire has notf But Ger- 
many is the last Empire to point the finger of reproach 
at Russia. Russia has made sacrifices for freedom — 
great sacrifices. Do you remember the cry of Bulgaria 
when she was torn by the most insensate tyranny that 
Europe has ever seen? Who listened to that cry? The 
only answer of the higher civilisation was that the liberty 



APPENDIX ^83 

of the Bulgarian peasants was not worth the life of a 
single Pomeranian soldier. But the rude barbarians of 
the North sent their sons by the thousand to die for 
Bulgarian freedom. "What about England? Go to 
Greece, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, France — in all 
those lands I could point out places where the sons of 
Britain have died for the freedom of those peoples. 
France has made sacrifices for the freedom of other 
lands than her own. Can you name a single country in 
the world for the freedom of which modern Prussia has 
ever sacrified a single life? By the test of our faith, 
the highest standard of civilisation is the readiness to 
sacrifice for others. 

German ^'Civilisation/^ 

I will not say a single word in disparagement of the 
German people. They are a great people, and have great 
qualities of head and hand and heart. I believe, in spite 
of recent events, that there is as great a store of kindli- 
ness in the German peasant as in any peasant in the 
world ; but he has been drilled into a false idea of civilisa- 
tion. It is efficient, it is capable ; but it is a hard civilisa- 
tion; it is a selfish civilisation; it is a material civilisa- 
tion. They cannot comprehend the action of Britain at 
the present moment; they say so. They say, *' France 
we can understand ; she is out for vengeance ; she is out 
for territory — Alsace and Lorraine." They say they 
can understand Eussia; she is fighting for mastery — 
she wants Galicia. They can understand you fighting 
for mastery — they can understand you fighting for 
greed of territory; but they cannot understand a great 
Empire pledging its resources, pledging its might, 
pledging the lives of its children, pledging its very ex- 
istence, to protect a little nation that seeks to defend 



^84 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

herself. God made man in His own image, high of 
purpose, in the region of the spirit ; German civilisation 
would re-create him in the image of a Diesel machine — 
precise, accurate, powerful, but with no room for soul 
to operate. 

Philosophy of Blood and Iron. 

Have you read the Kaiser's speeches? If you have 
not a copy I advise you to buy one; they will soon be 
out of print, and you will not have many more of the 
same sort. They are full of the glitter and bluster of 
German militarism — ''mailed fist," and "shining ar- 
mour. ' ' Poor old mailed fist ! Its knuckles are getting 
a little bruised. Poor shining armour! The shine is 
being knocked out of it. There is the same swagger and 
boastfulness running through the whole of the speeches. 
The extract which was given in the British Weekly this 
week is a very remarkable product as an illustration 
of the spirit we have to fight. It is the Kaiser 's speech 
to his soldiers on the way to the front: — 

''Remember that the German people are the chosen 
of God. On me, the German Emperor, the Spirit of 
God has descended. I am His sword, His weapon, and 
His vicegerent. Woe to the disobedient, and death t© 
cowards and unbelievers." 

Lunacy is always distressing, but sometimes it is dan- 
gerous; and when you get it manifested in the head of 
the Stato, and it has become the policy of a great Em- 
pire, it is about time that it should be ruthlessly put 
away. I do not believe he meant all those speeches; 
it was simply the martial straddle he had acquired. 
But there were men around him who meant every word 
of them. This was their religion. Treaties? They 



APPENDIX 285 

tangle the feet of Germany in her advance. Cut them 
with the sword! Little nations? They hinder the ad- 
vance of Germany. Trample them in the mire under the 
German heel! The Russian Slav? He challenges the 
supremacy of Germany and Europe. Hurl your legions 
at him and massacre him ! Britain ? She is a constant 
menace to the predominancy of Germany in the world. 
Wrest the trident out of her hand ! Christianity ? Sick- 
ly sentimentalism about sacrifice for others! Poor pap 
for German digestion! We will have a new diet. We 
will force it upon the world. It will be made in Ger- 
many — a diet of blood and iron. What remains ? Trea- 
ties have gone. The honour of nations has gone. Lib- 
erty has gone. What is left? Germany! Germany is 
left!— ''Deutschland liber Alles!'' 

That is what we are fighting — that claim to predomi- 
nancy of a material, hard civilisation, a civilisation 
which if it once rules and sways the world, liberty goes, 
democracy vanishes. And unless Britain and her sons 
come to the rescue it will be a dark day for humanity. 

*'The Boad-Hog of Europe." 

We are not fighting the German people. The German 
people are under the heel of this military caste, and 
it will be a day of rejoicing for the German peasant, 
artisan, and trader when the military caste is broken. 
You know its pretensions. They give themselves the 
airs of demigods. They walk the pavements, and civil- 
ians and their wives are swept into the gutter; they 
have no right to stand in the way of a great Prussian 
soldier. Men, women, nations — ^they all have to go. He 
thinks all he has to say is *'We are in a hurry.'' That 
is the answer he gave to Belgium — '* Rapidity of action 
is Germany's greatest asset," which means ''I am in a 



^86 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

hurry; clear out of my way.'* You know the type of 
motorist, the terror of the roads, with a 60 horse-power 
car, who thinks the roads are made for him, and knocks 
down anybody who impedes the action of his car by a 
single mile an hour. The Prussian Junker is the road- 
hog of Europe. Small nationalities in his way are 
hurled to the roadside, bleeding and broken. Women 
and children are crushed under the wheels of his cruel 
car, and Britain is ordered out of his road. All I can 
say is this: if the old British spirit is alive in British 
hearts, that bully will be torn from his seat. Were he 
to win, it would be the greatest catastrophe that has 
befallen democracy since the day of the Holy Alliance 
and its ascendancy. 

''Through Terror to Triumph.'^ 

They think we cannot beat them. It will not be easy. 
It will be a long job; it will be a terrible war; but in 
the end we shall march through terror to triumph. We 
shall need all our qualities — every quality that Britain 
and its people possess — prudence in counsel, daring in 
action, tenacity in purpose, courage in defeat, modera- 
tion in victory; in all things faith! 

It has pleased them to believe and to preach the belief 
that we are a decadent and degenerate people. They 
proclaim to the world through their professors that we 
are a non-heroic nation skulking behind our mahogany 
counters, whilst we egg on more gallant races to their 
destruction. This is the description given of us in Ger- 
many — **a timorous, craven nation, trusting to its 
Fleet." I think they are beginning to find their mis- 
take out already — and there are half a million young 
men of Britain who have already registered a vow to 
their King that they will cross the seas and hurl that 



APPENDIX ^87 

insult to British courage against its perpetrators on the 
battlefields of France and Germany. We want half a 
million more; and we shall get them. 

*'A Welsh Army in the Field/' 

Wales must continue doing her duty. I should like 
to see a Welsh army in the field. I should like to see 
the race that faced the Norman for hundreds of years in 
a struggle for freedom, the race that helped to win 
Crecy, the race that fought for a generation under Glen- 
dower against the greatest captain in Europe — I should 
like to see that race give a good taste of its quality in 
this struggle in Europe; and they are going to do it. 

The Sacrifice. 

I envy you young people your opportunity. They 
have put up the age limit for the Army, but I am sorry 
to say I have marched a good many years even beyond 
that. It is a great opportunity, an opportunity that 
only comes once in many centuries to the children of 
men. For most generations sacrifice comes in drab and 
weariness of spirit. It comes to you to-day, and it 
comes to-day to us all, in the form of the glow and thrill 
of a great movement for liberty, that impels millions 
throughout Europe to the same noble end. It is a great 
war for the emancipation of Europe from the thraldom 
of a military caste which has thrown its shadows upon 
two generations of men, and is now plunging the world 
into a welter of bloodshed and death. Some have al- 
ready given their lives. There are some who have given 
more than their own lives; they have given the lives 
of those who are dear to them. I honour their cour- 
age, and may God b« their comfort and their strength. 



t 



288 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

y But their reward is at hand ; those who have fallen have 
^ died consecrated deaths. They have taken their part in 
. the making of a new Europe — a new world. I can see 
.A signs of its coming in the glare of the battlefield. 



The ^'New Patriotism/* 

The people will gain more by this struggle in all lands 
than th^y comprehend at the present moment. It is true 
they will be free of the greatest menace to their free- 
dom. That is not all. There is something infinitely 
greater and more enduring which is emerging already 
out of this great conflict — a new patriotism, richer, 
nobler, and more exalted than the old. I see amongst 
all classes, high and low, shedding themselves of selfish- 
ly^ ness, a new recognition that the honour of the country 
does not depend merely on the maintenance of its glory 
in the stricken field, but also in protecting its homes 
from distress. It is bringing a new outlook for all 
classes. The great flood of luxury and sloth which had 
submerged the land is receding, and a new Britain is 
appearing. We can see for the first time the fundamen- 
tal things that matter in life, and that have been ob- 
scured from our vision by the tropical growth of pros- 
perity. 

''The Vision:* 



^ 



May I tell you in a simple parable what I think this 
war is doing for us? I know a valley in North Wales, 
between the mountains and the sea. It is a beautiful 
valley, snug, comfortable, sheltered by the mountains 
from all the bitter blasts. But it is very enervating, 
and I remember how the boys were in the habit of climb- 
ing the hill above the village to have a glimpse of the 
great mountains in the distance, and to be stimulated 



APPENDIX 289 

and freshened by the breezes which came from the hill- 
tops, and by the spectacle of their grandeur. "We have 
been living in a sheltered valley for generations. "We 
have been too comfortable and too indulgent, many, 
perhaps, too selfish, and the stern hand of fate has 
scourged us to an elevation where we can see the ever- 
lasting things that matter for a nation — ^the great peaks 
we had forgotten, of Honour, Duty, Patriotism, and, 
clad in glittering white, the towering pinnacle of Sacri- 
fice pointing like a rugged finger to Heaven. We shall 
descend into the valleys again; but as long as the men 
and women of this generation last, they will carry in 
their hearts the image of those mighty peaks whose foun- 
dations are not shaken, though Europe rock and sway 
in the convulsions of a great war. 



ni. 
THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF OUR CAUSE. 

EXTRACTS FROM A SPEECH DELIVERED AT THE CITY TEMPLE, 
NOVEMBER IOtH, 1914. 

* # # * # 

Britain Not Responsible for the War. 

When this war broke out, we were on better terms 
with Germany than we had been for fifteen years. 
There was not a man in the Cabinet who thought that 
war with Germany was a possibility under present con- 
ditions. Our relations had improved. There was not a 
diplomatic cloud over the German Ocean. We har- 
boured no designs against Germany: we meditated no 
quarrel with Germany: as the Lord liveth, we had en- 
gaged in no conspiracy against Germany. We were not 
envying her her territories; we sought not a yard of 
her colonies. We are in this war from motives of purest 
chivalry to defend the weak. 

France and Biissia Not Responsible 

Britain is not responsible for this war, and thank 
God for that. Who is responsible ? Not France. There 
had been a General Election in France just a few 
months before this war broke out, and the pacifist party 
gained one of the most conspicuous triumphs ever 
achieved in any country against the most powerful poli- 
tical combination that had ever federated against it. 

290 



APPENDIX 291 

The Government of France was essentially a pacifist 
Government. The French people abhorred the idea of 
war, and the Government shared to the full that abhor- 
rence. Not France ! Not Russia ! Why, it is an essen- 
tial part of the German case that Russia would not be 
ready for war for three years. That is their boast. 
That is why they attacked her. Then Russia could not 
have provoked war. 

You can read, and read again, the despatches of our 
Ambassador at Vienna. The quarrel was ostensibly be- 
tween Austria and Russia. Sir Edward Grey laboured 
anxiously for peace ; no man could have worked harder 
than he did for peace ; and if there is blood shed, there 
is not a stain upon Sir Edward Grey. He suggested a 
European Conference to discuss these matters. Ger- 
many said: ''Dp you not think it would be better for 
Austria and Russia to talk the matter over amongst 
themselves? We are only suggesting the best way of 
settling the dispute. ' ' Sir Edward Grey said : ' ' Yes ; that 
seems a very sensible idea.'' Russia and Austria met. 
They were actually discussing matters amongst them- 
selves, and getting on admirably — so admirably that 
Germany got alarmed, declared war on Russia, and al- 
though the dispute was ostensibly between Russia and 
Austria, it was only five days afterwards that you had 
war between Russia and Austria, and that was because 
Germany had already started. 

The Origin of the War, 

Not Russia! Belgium? Or Serbia? Does the poor 
victim of a bird of prey really commence the hostilities ? 

Now, looking back, you can see what happened. You 
can see Austria hovering like a hawk over the Balkan 
fields, and, if you are country bred, you know what that 



292 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

means. You know it will not be long before it swoops 
down and some poor helpless creature will be quivering 
in its talons. The vulture has been hanging over Bel- 
gium for some time. We know that now. It has made 
a mistake. It soared so high that even the most discern- 
ing falcon might have made a mistake. It thought it 
was pouncing on a rabbit, and it fell on a hedgehog, 
and has been bleeding and sore ever since. We know 
now what it would have been malevolent to suspect be- 
fore, that the counsellors of Germany, while professing 
peace and pretending good will, in cold blood, with 
malice aforethought, had intended, planned, organized, 
wholesale murder of peaceable neighbours, and had even 
arranged the date to suit themselve;^ a date when they 
thought their neighbours would be caught unprepared 
to defend their lives and their homes. If this wanton 
deed of premeditated treachery against humanity is to 
pass unchallenged by the nations of the world, then let 
us admit that civilisation is a failure, that the sceptre 
of right is broken, and that force — ^brute force — is once 
more enthroned amongst the nations. 

Our Part in the War to he Justified. 

It may be said it is not enough to prove that Germany 
is in the wrong. We have to justify Great Britain in 
embarking on a gigantic war which will tax to the ut- 
most her resources of material, money, men, and leave 
her impoverished at the end of the struggle. 

We all knew the consequences would be tremendous. 
For the moment the consequences are incalculable; so 
much so that we had no right to go into this war without 
the most overwhelming reasons. The sacrifice of human 
life is appalling. The suffering it is impossible to esti- 
mate. The waste is so prodigious that, viewing it even 



APPENDIX ^93 

as I do from day to day, and have done for over three 
months, it has not ceased to shock. The wealth har- 
vested by years of peace and hard and anxious toil is 
thrown into the flames of war, to intensify their con- 
suming fury. If anyone says we ought not to have 
entered into this war without the most overpowering 
reasons, I am entirely with him. 

The Doctrine of Extreme Pacifists. 

There are men who maintain that war is not justifi- 
able under any conditions. There are men who main- 
tain that even if your house is attacked, if your country 
is invaded and threatened with oppression, if you had 
a second William the Conqueror landing in this island, 
destroying the Constitution, imposing his own language, 
his own laws, and his own rule upon this country, ravag- 
ing and destroying as he has done in Belgium — ^there are 
men who carry their doctrine so far gis to say that, even 
under those conditions, you ought not to use a deadly 
weapon to defend yourself or your homes or your coun- 
try. I have great respect for them ; but I am afraid that 
I shall never be able to attain in this world to that alti- 
tude of idealism. '' 

But may I just say one or two words about that? 

It was not the creed of the Puritan Fathers. I main- 
tain it is not the principle of the Christian Faith. That 
deprecates revenge. It deprecates retaliation. But I 
never heard a saying of the Master's which would con- 
demn men for striking a blow for right, justice, or the 
protection of the weak. 

'^To Precipitate Ideals is to Retard Their Advent.'* 

And may I also say that to carry those principles too 
far is just the way to destroy the possibility of their 



294i THE GREAT CRUSADE 

ever beeoming realised? To precipitate ideals is to re- 
tard their advent. 

We are all looking forward to the time when swords 
shall be beaten into ploughshares and spears into prun- 
ing hooks, and nation shall not rise up against nation, 
and there shall be no more war. But as long as there 
are nations and empires that beat ploughshares into 
swords and pruning hooks into spears in order to prey 
upon nations of ploughers and pruners living alongside 
them, to disarm would be to delay the period that we are 
all praying for. 

The surest method of establishing the reign of peace 
on earth is by making the way of the transgressor of 
the peace of nations too hard for the rulers of men to 
tread. 

Defending a Neighbour From a Bully. 

Most men — every real man — would defend his own 
home, his own life and liberty, and the life, liberty, and 
the honour of those who have been committed to his care. 
Yes ; but supposing that man saw a poor little neighbour, 
a neighbour he had sworn to protect, and whose home 
was broken into by a hulking bully, who robbed him of 
his goods, attacked him, his wife and his children, 
burnt, murdered, and maimed — I ask you what manner 
of man would he be who looked on calmly without rush- 
ing in to help him with any weapon at his hand? It 
would be a piece of heartless poltroonery. Britain has 
never been guilty of that. 

Germany's Demand on Belgium. 

Why was Belgium so maltreated? What is her of- 
fence? She had refused to allow Germany to march 
through her territories to attack a good neighbour of 



APPENDIX ^95 

Belgium's. France and Belgium were very good neigh- 
bours. They are kinsmen in race and religion, and to 
a large extent in language; and France was fully 
shielded and protected on every frontier except that 
which faced Belgium. Germany 's demand was a demand 
put forward in defiance of a treaty obligation with Bel- 
gium, to give facilities to Germany to drive a dagger 
into the heart of her good neighbour France through 
her unprotected side. A meaner, shabbier, more cow- 
ardly request was never addressed to anyone. 

Belgium was to be nominally neutral. But Belgian 
roads, Belgian rivers and railways, were to take sides; 
and in modern warfare railways are more formidable 
weapons than rifles. That was the demand. It is as if 
a man came to you and said : * * I want to kill your next- 
door neighbour, but it is very difficult to get in at his 
front door, and his back door is barred and bolted, or 
rather the back door is bolted, and there is a very for- 
midable policeman patrolling the front door. It would 
take us too long to beat down those bars and bolts, and 
we want to get at him before he is ready to defend him- 
self. I have been making ready to attack; he has not 
been making ready to defend ; I wajit to take advantage 
of that, and you must help me. It is a small request. 
Surely you will see it is reasonable ! All I want is that 
you should allow me to get at him through your garden. 
I will see all the damage is repaired. I will restore the 
garden to you exactly as I found it. I will compensate 
you for any injury done to the flower beds, and if any 
of your children happen to be killed or injured in the 
scuffle, well, I wiU pay you a handsome compensation 
for thaf 



296 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

The Agony of Belgium. 

Belgium has refused to bring that dishonour on her 
national reputation. She has preferred to face the pros- 
pect of national annihilation ; and every decent man and 
woman throughout the civilised world will applaud the 
nobility of her action. We know what she is enduring 
at this present moment. It is too pitiful a story to re- 
late. We are witnessing the agony of a brave little peo- 
ple suffering for the right. Their cities and their vil- 
lages are destroyed, their population scattered. 

A Belgian statesman told me that there were three 
times as many old people, women, and children destroyed 
in Belgium as there were soldiers fallen in her gallant 
army. They have paid ransom to Germany. They have 
given their goods to Germany; but that has not saved 
them. 

You will remember when Alaric the Goth went to 
Rome, and when he was about to take it, a deputation of 
the besieged citizens visited him. He put his demands 
very high, and they said to him, ''If such, King, are 
your demands, what do you intend to leave us?'' The 
haughty barbarian replied, ''Your lives." He was a 
better man than his cultured successor. Three times as 
many helpless people slaughtered by this great cultured 
empire ! They have robbed them of their food to main- 
tain their armies. They are now sending begging to 
America, saying, ' ' You feed them. ' ' It was not America 
that devastated their lands ! 

There are multitudes dying of hunger there, under the 
banner of this great proud empire. I wish this were all. 
I cannot repeat all the authenticated stories that are 
told of German rule in Belgium. I wish they were not 
true for the honour of civilisation, for the honour of 
humanity. 



APPENDIX 297 

The Judgment of Cromwell. 

Cromwell once said: *' There is some contentment in 
the hand by which a man falls. It is some satisfaction, 
if a Commonwealth must fall, that it perish by men, 
and not by the hand of persons differing little from 
beasts/' That is Cromwell's judgment on the devasta- 
tion of Belgium, and on this savagery perpetrated on a 
harmless little country by its big neighbour, who had 
solemnly passed her word to protect it. There must be 
a revised version of one passage of the Scriptures in 
Belgium. It must be revised for Belgian use and read : 
*'Who is thy neighbour? Thy neighbour is he who 
falls on thee like a thief, strips thee and wounds thee, 
and leaves thee half dead." That is Germany's version 
of duty to a neighbour. If Britain, after passing her 
word, had left that little country bleeding on the road- 
side, without attempting to rescue her, the infamy of 
Germany would have been shared by the British Empire. 



.... ^'After That the Judgments* 

I hope that within the next few days there will be a 
call for another large contingent of men. I should like 
to see each county called upon for its quota — that every 
town, every city, and every area should know what is 
expected of it. All our rights and our liberties have 
been won by men who counted their lives as nothing so 
long as their country and their faith were free. In the 
days when we were winning the battles of religious free- 
dom in this country, there were shirkers, but their cow- 
ardice did not save them from the tomb. It is appointed 
that men should die once, and after that the judgment. 
Brave men die, but they need not fear the judgment. 



^98 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

I think we are too ready to scoff at creeds whieli prom- 
ise the glories of their paradise to those who die for the 
cause or for the country they are devoted to. It is but 
a crude expression of a truth which is the foundation 
of every great faith, that sacrifice is ever the surest 
road to redemption. 

It is appointed that cowards shall die, but after that 
the judgment. They fall into the unhonoured grave of 
the men who have never given up anything which is 
precious to them, to their country, their religion or their 
kind. After that the judgment! 



Justice the Greatest Asset, 

The fundamental error of the German calculations is 
becoming more and more manifest every day. They are 
beginning to realise that justice is the greatest of all 
military assets. The wrongful invasion of Belgium — 
they admitted it was wrong — the trampling on the 
rights of a small nationality, has become a military 
weakness to them. That is manifest now, and it is be- 
coming more manifest day by day. 

In a long struggle it is the heart that tells, and injus- 
tice weakens the heart of nations. They cannot endure ; 
and this country has demonstrated — and the war will 
be waged in vain if it does not demonstrate it even more 
clearly — that the justice of a nation's cause is in itself 
a military equipment of the first magnitude and im- 
portance. 

Sometimes when I read the reports I feel perplexed 
and baffled. I see accounts of advances here and re- 
tirements there — of victories in this spot and mishaps 
in another. But through it all, I think I can see the 



APPENDIX 299 

hand of justice gradually, slowly, but certainly grasp- 
ing the victory. 

* ' Watchman, what of the night V It is dark, and the 
cries of rage and anguish rend the air, but the golden 
morrow is at hand, when the valiant youth of Britain 
will return from the stricken fields of Europe, where 
their heroism has proclaimed to the world that justice 
is the best sustenance for valour, and that their valour 
has won a lasting triumph for justice. 



A HOLY WAR. 

EXTRACTS FROM A SPEE5CH DELIVERED AT BANGOR, FEBRUARY 

28th, 1915. 



If Germany Were to Win. 

"What does it mean were Germany to win ? It means 
world-power for the worst elements in Germany, not for 
Germany. The Germans are an intelligent race, they 
are undoubtedly a cultivated race, they are a race of 
men who have been responsible for great ideas in this 
world. But this would mean the dominance of the worst 
elements amongst them. If you think I am exaggerat- 
ing, just read for the moment extracts from the articles 
in the newspapers which are in the ascendancy now in 
Germany about the settlement which they expect after 
this war. I am sorry to say I am stating nothing but 
the bare brutal truth. I do not say that the Kaiser will 
sit on the Throne of England if he should win. I do 
not say that he will impose his laws and his language 
on this country as did William the Conqueror. I do 
not say that you will hear the noisy tramp of the goose 
step in the cities of the Empire. I do not say that 
Death ^s Head Hussars will be patrolling our highways. 
I do not say that a visitor, let us say, to Aberdaron will 
have to ask a Pomeranian policeman the best way to 
Heirs Mouth. That is not what I mean. What I mean 

300 



APPENDIX * SOI 

is that if Germany were triumphant in this war she 
would practically be the dictator of. the international 
policy of the world. Her spirit would be in the ascen- 
dant. Her doctrines would be in the ascendant; by the 
sheer power of her will she would bend the minds of men 
in her own fashion. Germanism in its later and worst 
form would be the inspiriting thought and philosophy 
of the hour. 

France after 1870. 

Do you remember what happened to France after 
1870 ? The German armies left France, but all the same 
for years after that, and while France was building up 
her army, she stood in cowering terror of this monster. 
Even after her great army was built France was op- 
pressed with a constant anxiety as to what might hap- 
pen. Germany dismissed her ministers. Had it not been 
for the intervention of Queen Victoria in 1874, the 
French army would never have been allowed to be re- 
constructed, and France would simply have been the 
humble slave of Germany to this hour. What a condi- 
tion for a country! And now France is fighting, not 
so much to recover her lost provinces ; she is fighting to 
recover her self-respect and her national independence; 
she is fighting to shake off this nightmare that has been 
on her soul for over a generation — a France with Ger- 
many constantly meddling, bullying, and interfering. 
And that is what would happen if Russia were trampled 
upon, France broken, Britain disarmed. We should be 
left without any means to defend ourselves. We might 
have a navy that would enable us, perhaps, to resent an 
insult from Nicaragua, we might have just enough 
troops, perhaps, to confront the Mad Mullah — I mean 
the African specimen. 

Where would the chivalrous country be to step in to 



302 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

protect us as we protected France in 1874? America? 
If countries like Russia and France, with their huge 
armies, and the most powerful navy in the world could 
not face this terrible military machine, how can America 
step in? It would be more than America could do to 
defend her own interests on her own continent if Ger- 
many is triumphant. Ah ! but what manner of Germsmy 
would we be subordinate to ? There has been a struggle 
going on in Germany for over thirty years between its 
best and its worst elements. It is like that great strug- 
gle which is depicted in one of Wagner's great operas 
between the good and the evil spirit for the possession 
of the man's soul. That great struggle has been going 
on in Germany for thirty or forty years. At each suc- 
cessive General Election the better elements seemed to 
be getting the upper hand, and I do not mind saying I 
was one of those who believed they were going to win. 
I thought they were going to snatch the soul of Ger- 
many: it is worth saving; it is a great, powerful soul, 
and I thought they were going to save it. Then a dead 
military caste said, ^^We will have none of this," and 
they plunged Europe into seas of blood. Hope was 
again shattered. 

"Harnessed to the Chariot of Destruction" 

Those worst elements will emerge triumphant out of 
this war if Germany wins. We shall be vassals, not to 
the best Germany, not to the Germany of sweet songs 
and inspiring, noble thought — ^not to the Germany of 
science consecrated to the service of man, not to the Ger- 
many of a virile philosophy that helped to break the 
shackles of superstition in Europe — ^not to that Ger- 
many, but to a Germany that talked through the rau- 
cous voice of Krupp's artillery, a Germany that has 



APPENDIX 308 

harnessed science to the chariot of destruction and of 
death, the Germany of a philosophy of force, violence, 
and brutality, a Germany that would quench every 
spark of freedom either in its own land or any other in 
rivers of blood. I make no apology on a day conse- 
crated to the greatest sacrifice for coming here to preach 
a holy war against that. 

War is a time of sacrifice and of service. Some can 
render one service, some another, some here and some 
there. Some can render great assistance, others but 
little. There is not one who cannot help in some meas- 
ure, even if it be only by enduring cheerfully his share 
of the discomfort. 

In the old Welsh legends there is a story of a man 
who was given a series of what appeared to be impos- 
sible tasks to perform ere he could reach the desires of 
his heart. Amongst other things he had to do was to 
recover every grain of seed that had been sown in a 
large field and bring it all in without one missing by 
sunset. He came to an anthill and won all the hearts and 
enlisted the sympathies of the industrious little people. 
They spread over the field, and before sundown the seed 
was all in except one grain, and as the sun was setting 
over the western skies a lame ant hobbled along with 
that grain also. Some of us have youth and vigour and 
suppleness of limb; some of us are crippled with years 
or infirmities, and we are at best but lame ants. But 
we can all limp along with some share of our country's 
burden, and thus help her in this terrible hour to win 
the desire of her heart. 



y. 

"FIGHT ON!" 

SPEECH DELIVERED AT BANGOR, AT THE MEETING OF THE ROYAL 
NATIONAL EISTEDDFOD, AUGUST 5tH, 1915. 

No Eisteddfod was ever before held under such a 
cloud. It is indeed a terrible time. I am frankly glad 
that you are holding the Eisteddfod this year. I did 
not relish the idea of the Welsh Muse being placed in an 
internment camp with barbed wire to keep her from 
getting out till the end of the war. She is not an alien 
enemy, but a native of the hills. She is not a German 
spy, but a bonny lass from the Welsh glens, and I am 
delighted that you have set her free once more. I have 
come here from the work of war in order to hear the 
harp of the bards above the shriek of shells. 

''Is It Peace V 

I observe that you have omitted to ask the old-estab- 
lished question, *'Is it peace?" Everywhere sounds of 
war trumpets rend the air. From sea to sea the land 
of Britain trembles with the myriads preparing for war. 
East and West and North and South, you hear the ring 
of the hammers and the whistle of the steel lathes fash- 
ioning weapons of war. On quiet nights from my cot- 
tage in Surrey I can hear the sound of the cannon fired 
in anger on the ruddied fields of death in France. I 
know with horror the work that is going on, and as I 

304 



APPENDIX 805 

hear the old prayer of the Gorsedd comes to my lips, 
'*0 lesu, nad ganwith'^ — ^"0 Jesu, prevent wrong!'* 

* * Is it peace ? " No ! Why not ? Because an unclean 
spirit has possessed the rulers of a great nation. Now 
and again in the history of the world its peoples have 
had to fight in order to win — sometimes in order to 
retain those elementary rights which lift men above 
beasts of the field — Justice, Liberty, Righteousness. If 
Right is worsted in this conflict, civilisation will be put 
back for generations. If Right triumphs, mankind takes 
a long leap onward on the road to progress. This is one 
of those periods. 

''When Justice is Menaced." 

I am proud to know "Wales has flong its whole 
strength into the struggle for humanity. We have a 
great army already in the battlefield. We have a still 
greater army ready and eager to support their comrades 
in the field. There was a time when it seemed as if the 
military spirit of Wales had vanished into the mists of 
the past. Some of us thought that the religious revivals 
of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries had broken 
the fighting spirit of our race. No real religion has ever 
yet broken a nation's spirit. It disciplines its strength, 
it elevates its purpose. Such a nation does not dissipate 
its power in envious anger and rage against its neigh- 
bours, but when justice is menaced that nation becomes 
more formidable than ever. 

"Welsh Martial Spirit Not Dead." 

There was a time in the last 200 years when we could 
hardly summon the material for three regiments to the 
flag. To-day you have 100,000 men who have rallied 



306 THE GREAT CRUSADE 

to the flag from the hills and valleys of their native 
land. We have a greater army from Wales alone than 
Wellington commanded at Waterloo, and they are just 
as good men every one of them. And they have not 
ceased coming yet. More and more men are still gath- 
ering in the camping ground. As they learn in the re- 
motest hovels that liberty is in danger, they come along 
to defend her against the violence of the oppressor. Our 
Welsh martial spirit was not dead — ^it was not even 
slumbering — ^it was simply hiding in its caves among 
the hills until the call came from above. War after 
war swept past it without rousing its old energies. At 
last it has come forth fully armed for battle and might- 
ier than ever. 

Wales and a New Charter of Liberty. 

Welsh courage has manifested itself in this war as 
never before in the history of Wales. When Magna 
Charta was wrested from a tyrannical king, there was 
a Welsh contingent among the forces that achieved that 
victory for English freedom, and there are Welsh names 
among the signatories of the potent document. When 
the charter of European liberty is drawn up after this 
war — ^the charter that will settle the fate of mankind 
on many continents for ages to come — it will be a source 
of pride to us that our little country contributed such 
a large and efficient contingent to the army that estab- 
lished a new charter for human liberty. 

The Unshackling of Russia, 

I have no doubt that, however long victory may tarry, 
it will ultimately come. We may have to wait for the 
dawn. The eastern sky is dark and lowering ; the stars 



APPENDIX SOT 

have been clouded over. I regard that stormy horizon 
with anxiety, but with no dread. To-day I can see the 
colour of a new hope beginning to empurple the sky. 
The enemy in their victorious march know not what 
they are doing. Let them beware, for they are un- 
shackling Russia. With their monster artillery they are 
shattering the rusty bars that fettered the strength of 
the people of Russia. You can see them shaking their 
powerful limbs free from the stifling debris, and pre- 
paring for the conflict with a new spirit. I repeat, the 
enemy know not what they are achieving for their ap- 
parent victim. Austria and Prussia are doing for Rus- 
sia to-day what their military ancestors effected just as 
unwittingly for France. They are hammering a sword 
that will destroy them, and are freeing a great nation 
to wield it with a more potent stroke and a mightier 
sweep than it ever yet commanded. 

''Fight On!" 

For us, we must fight on or for ever sink as a people 
into impotent obscurity. Britain has another task. It 
is becoming clearer and our own share of it is becoming 
greater as the months roll past. It is to see that the 
suffering and the loss shall not be in vain. The fields 
of Europe are being rent by the ploughshares of war. 
The verdure of the old civilisation is vanishing in the 
desolating upheaval of the conflict. Let us see to It that 
wheat and not tares are sown in the bleeding soil, and 
'*in due season we shall reap if we faint not.'' 



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